[obobskivich]

ok, so I'm wanting to get a hi-fi output from my computer, preferably a balanced analog signal (i dont care how many times it goes digital -> digital, as long as the digital -> analog is high quality, and there isn't some 16/48khz garbage somewhere in the signal path (mostly because most 16/48's are lower quality overall than 24/96's, even though i dont use 24/96 24/7))

currently I have:

Denon AH-D2000
JVC PC-R11
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Plat
2x M-Audio Audiophile 2496
cabling to make it go

on the drawing board:
Millet Starving Student
Markl mod for the D2000's
(basically these two are going to be done, i just need the free time available, so figure by the time the whole setup is finished, these are effected)
balanced headphones??? (this is a maybe, either HD-650's with a recable, or balancing the D2k's (haven't found much media on this though, but I'm sure its very possible))

anyways, here's basically what I want the setup to be capable of as an end result:
movies/music/TV (from PCI tuner) and gaming, at the same time, with independent volume controls, and not having to minimize the games to change channel/song/album/movie/etc

what that boils down to, roughly, is 2 PCs, still no problem, but the big ???????????? is how to get them working nicely together, cost effectively, theres a couple options I've thought of, but they all start getting kind of expensive:

Scenario A: keep the Audigy 2 in computer 1, get an x-fi elite pro or x-fi prelude in computer 2, feed audigy's digital outs into elite/prelude's digital ins, feed elite/prelude's analog outs into amplifier

Scenario B: keep audigy 2 in computer 1, get an x-fi elite pro or x-fi prelude in computer 2, feed both into a decent mixer (was thinking something like Allen & Heath Zed-14), feed main outs to amp (remove volume control segment of amp, and rewire for XLR input, use the mixer to control everything basically)

Scenario C: move audigy 2 to computer 2, get 1616m or delta 1010 or audiophile 192 in computer 1, feed audigy 2's digital outs to digital ins of 1616m/delta1010/audiophile 192 and feed analog balanced outs to amp

Scenario D: same as C except analog balanced out -> mixer from B -> amp (or with both cards on same lavel, like in B, just higher quality card)

the reason for an X-Fi/Audigy board is gaming, M-Audio, E-MU, and ESI/AudioTrak all make great cards, but they're fairly dinky in gaming, Asus makes some nice gaming cards, but I dont have many issues with the Creative hardware I have now, so I don't see any reason not to stay with that

obviously the soluting that uses the 1616M or Delta1010 as a DAC fed into the mixer is probably going to yield the highest absolute quality, thats also like a $900-$1400 setup and will be a total pain in the @$$ to control (since i'll have like 5 volume settings across 3 devices just to regulate the volume: in-game volume, master out volume on PC 2, input level volume on 1616/1010, master output, and mixer level settings) basically it gets really sloppy to control, even though it affords exceptional audio quality (and generally a fully balanced signal path)

just thinking about it in review, using computer 1 (if you haven't figured out by now, this is the older/slower system thats less appealing for gaming but still up to the task of music and HD video playback) with one of those m-audio cards into a mixer, as a pure music system, might be an option, but again, its getting kind of sloppy to control

basically i'm asking, what do you guys do to get the kind of quality I want from a computer source, while maintaing hardware accelerated in-game audio effects?