My Asus Xonar Essence STX soundcard seems to be back in order for the moment.  I'm giddily awaiting the arrival of a new set of MrSpeakers Mad Dog headphones to replace my trusty SRH440s.   I lament the rather high background noise of the Xonar (maybe just my PC's overzealous cooling fans?)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRIW6fmmXi0   ^^ cousin of a good friend of mine

^^ edits to post above   Surely there are some, maybe higher-end, car receiver/amp units that have better DACs built right in, aren't there?   Another option is to get something like an Astell&Kern AK10--interface it with your iPad, then run its line-out to your car stereo's auxillary jack...

What you're suggesting is indeed redundant--all you're doing is boosting the signal processed from the (presumably lousy) DAC in your iPad to your receiver/amp.  A better way to improve your sound is by sending your music directly to your receiver, as a digital signal rather than as an analog...

I'm in a similar situation, though I'm taking a more progressive approach.  I currently own a Shure SRH440 headset and a Xonar STX.  I'm upgrading to a Mr. Speakers Mad Dog headset (with 1/4" plug), Ceentrance HiFi M8, and an iPod Touch.  All this scores to me as I gain portability, an improved...

I jam out to Triceratops every now and then.  I'm sure to incite flames by saying this, but I think of them as a Japanese Oasis.

Not exactly a favorite, but Emma Pollock's voice has a mellow, almost haunting quality that sticks with me somehow.  Anime fans may recognize her from the opening sequence of Gunslinger Girl.  She's well-known as the former front-lady of The Delgados.   I don't care how many times she's been...

Thanks for the extremely prompt reply.   Whoa, my PC's on-board RealTek audio's actually not too bad.  Being a custom-build including an Asus Xonar Essence STX card from the get-go, I never bothered to use it until now.  Compared to the Acer 1551 laptop I bought more than three years ago, it...

After a happy two years of enjoying music playing through my Asus Xonar Essence STX PC sound card, I'm now experiencing some wacky compression from it.  When playing music from foobar2000, the quieter parts of songs are amplified relative to the louder ones.  Dynamics are completely lost--the...