Hi all, I'm completely new to this hi-fi thing, and my plan is to start off with a pair of Grado sr80s within the next month, but I have some questions, and as I'm sure you all know it's hard to jump in to a forum of experts when you don't even understand all the lingo. Hope this thread is acceptable.

First, I'm curious where you all go for your gear. I am posting in the computer-as-source forum because that's what I plan to use, but as I am continually wowed by various threads and a lot of your sigs, I wonder where you went for it all, and if there really are places I can try these things out so I know what I'm getting.

Second and more specifically, I have a decent sound card (Audigy Platinum 2z... or something along those lines, I'm at work right now and can't check) which I am thinknig about upgrading based on what recommendations I've seen from all of you so far. My question is, do I lose the quality of the sound card if I plug my headphones into speakers that are in the sound card? As in, my Klipsch speakers have a headphone jack in them up front, but I don't know if I'm losing quality by going that route.

Thanks all, sorry for the very newbie questions but I hope to learn quickly.