Thinking of Upgrading

Hello, I am looking into possibly upgrading my audio system and I am looking for some advice.

Basically I am thinking of trying to sell my Xonar D2X for around $150 and replacing it with a $20 Xonar DG. I would than take the remaining money and buy an external DAC. My preference would be that the DAC has Optical S/PDIF (is this TOSLINK?) in and 3.5mm line out. I wouldn't mind if the DAC also had USB input, that way I could use it on my laptop as well.

I would run Optical S/PDIF from the Xonar DG into the DAC and than 3.5mm from the DAC to my FiiO E9 Amp. My headphones are Sennheiser HD595.

I am looking to spend around $200 ($250 max) on a DAC. If I can't get the exact features I want from the DAC that would be OK, I am mostly looking for audio quality.

Basically I am looking for help on a few things:

1. Would a $200 DAC represent a clear enough improvement over my Xonar D2X to be worth the upgrade?
2. What DACs are there in my price range that meet my specifications?
3. My motherboard does have an Optical S/PDIF output built in, I mainly want the Xonar card because of its ability to do positional audio for gaming. If I get the Xonar card would I be able to do the positional audio with the Optical S/PDIF connection? If the Xonar card wouldn't be able to do the positional audio I could spend an additional $20 on the DAC.
4. About half of my music is in lossless FLAC format, however a good portion of it is in lossy formats such as MP3. If I did upgrade my system would my MP3 music become 'unlisten-to-able' in comparison to my FLAC music? As it stands I can't really tell the difference between FLAC and MP3 (I still try and get direct CD rips of as much of my music as possible, I only 'acquire' MP3 rips if I am unable to locate a suitable Lossless CD quality file to purchase).
5. Would the output signal of my system on optical S/PDIF be limited to the output of my soundcard, or of my DAC? For example, if my soundcard could only do 16bit/48kHz but the DAC could do 24bit/192kHz, what would be my maximum signal?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide me!

Anyone have any advice?

I was looking at possibly getting an HRT Music Streamer II as most sources I have found seem to indicate it is a fair upgrade over even the most high end of audio cards (a category of which my D2X belongs to). If anyone knows of something better than the MSII around the $200-250 pricepoint I would love to look into that as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Max 

ololol

Awesome avatar!

 

1.  yup

 

2.  There's a few, I think.

 

3.  Yes, the Xonar's DSPs should work with your external DAC.

 

4.  You'd have to upgrade your whole system, especially those headphones, but even then, "un-listenable" is subjective.

 

5.  Your DAC will be the limiting factor, usually.

 

 

Thanks for the help, now I just need some specific suggestions for DACs. Everything I have found on my own is either around $100-150 and doesn't have all the features I want, or it is $300+ with the features I want. The cheapest DAC that I have personally found that does have all the features I want (HeadRoom Micro DAC) is a bit above my price range (although I may still consider it). The problem is that I cant actually seem to find any reviews or comparisons for the most recent model. I did see two in the For Sale forums that I could probably afford, one being priced at $170 which is in my price range.

I just can't seem to find a solid DAC around the $200 price point.