Does the sound have alot of reverb as well as the 2 second latency? I had a similar issue until I disabled monitoring under the audio setup. I can still monitor myself through the speakers, but no delay. I think it is important to differentiate between the sound card software as well as the recording software in that what you may be hearing is a combination of the two sources, the first being the throughput signal from the card to the monitors, that is if you have the outs from the card going to an amp for monitors ar active monitors, and then the other signal which is being processed and sent through the software (the processed computer signal), then out to the monitors at the same time. So, that is why you have to disable the software audio monitoring in Cubasis. I am new to this, so I hope this makes sense.
The way you describe your problem, it might be something else altogether different because of the lag time after you see the meter rise in patchmix. What computer components do you have, processor, ram, etc.?