I've searched the forums and found out about plenty of cards, cheap and remarkably expensive. I just want to know what's best suited for me. I listen to a lot of music on my pc, and i'm looking to get a sound card that would make it my main source. I use a pair of A900 cans about 60% of the time and a 2.1 Creative speaker setup the other 40% of the time i'd estimate. I also play games enough to want good support for them as well (although it seems there's a bias toward gaming cards around here ). I also would like to keep my budget under $100, the lower the better. I'm not an insane audiophile either, i just want good sound, because right now this onboard card is not cutting it.

Also another small question.. If i get a better card, will i be able to turn up the iTunes sound enhancer feature to the max without distortion? Because right now, it distorts a lot.

Problem is, good sound and good gaming support / performance don't go well together at the moment. The good-sounding sub-$100 cards either are plain stereo (E-MU 0404 - not intended for direct connection of headphones, btw) or stuck with maximum EAX 2.0 support via Sensaura or QSound libraries, i.e. 100% in software and with not as great game sound (Envy24xx cards - Revolution 5.1, Prodigy 7.1, 7.1 LT), while good gaming cards like the Audigy 2ZS aren't particularly exciting in terms of music. The new X-Fi cards seem to be the best compromise so far, but even the cheapest one still is priced a good bit beyond $100.

"iTunes sound enhancer" sounds like something that's better left turned off...

Hm, alright thanks. To mention again, i'm not a huge audiophile so i just want something that i could listen to music with a preferred eq setting and have it sound better than an ipod. Is the zs capable of that?

Also, iTunes' sound enhancer really brings the music to life for me, but it could just be because my current card is so bad. Try it out if you're interested, it widens the soundstage in my a900s by 100%. The drawback is that bass becomes a mess, it almost sounds as if i'm listening with blown woofers.

Would the 2zs supply a noticably better sound than an ipod? Because if not, i may just stick with my ipod (with distorted eq settings) as my main source.

Can anyone state the difference between an ipod and a zs2 as a source?