haha that makes sense :P   i was thinking under $100.   a Dac/Amp combo. Fiio is the most popular isn't it?  and i have a asus laptop, so yea it would need to be portable. I'm looking at a Fiio E10...

bump :P

I've done my fair share of reading and research, but I'm still not sure about some things.

which DAC would you recommend for a 3 yr. old Asus Laptop using a built- in crappy Altec Lansing soundcard? I use M50's, FLAC, Foobar, RPGWizard's Dolby settings. Turn off all the enhancements in the control panel. etc... Is there any DAC i could get with a 5.1 Speakermode output so i could...

I have had the M-50's for about a year now with an Asus K52F laptop. Foobar, the majority of files in FLAC along with RPGWizard's Dolby HP Settings. It sounds nice. But would a IBasso or a Fiio DAC be worth purchasing? or would it just not really make a difference?