Thanks for the info.  I think I will just go with the STX then, it seems to have a lot of fixes that the Forte should have come with and hopefully should last longer than my Forte.  I think I will go with the Fiio E7/E10 for my portable gear.     I am pretty sure the S3 can have the DAC...

Quote: That unfortunately won't work as I don't have any PCI slots on my mobo, it would need to be PCI-E (also am looking for a headphone amp that is on par or better than the Forte, even though I don't think my HD 555s will notice that too much).     The Fiio E6 does look interesting...

Hi Guys,   Well I posted a while back about my X-Fi Forte analog outs dying on me so I have been forced to use the DAC on my Z5500 (from the digital out of the X-Fi Forte) to power my HD 555s.  I have personally found the Logitech's headphone out to be awful compared to the Forte's headphone...

Bump .  

Hi Guys,   I was hoping someone could help me narrow down what failed on my Forte so I can go about repairing it.  I recently had my Forte die when it started outputting a rhythmic beating, coupled with heavily distorted audio (you can't hear anything at all until the volume is cranked up)...