I went ahead and looked at the known issues and it seams like most of them were concerning Battlefield 3 and conflicts with EAX 5; both of which are kind of dated now, and the drivers seemed to have been fixed. I would have gone with the phoebus but Asus seems content that the working drivers...

You got it right, I meant throw them away. I did see the stx ii, but Asus has not yet released it (just an announcement with no real date) and they haven't set a price. I am also still worried about the driver issues that Asus seems to be having. Think I will wait on this one, but it appears to...

Thank you for your input. I understand the reasoning behind getting a better speaker set up, I guess I just wanted to do things in steps not all at once; which it looks like, if I go with the stx, I may be forced to do. I noticed in my reading/exploration that Asus is in the process of releasing...

Which sound card would be a good option and give me a headphone amp?

If anyone has an opinion on how to get good sound from the PC without trashing my current speakers I would appreciate it. I listen to music, watch movies, and play games.

 These are my current speakers. They are not terrible nut they are only 2 steps above the $100 dollar option you described. Any opinions on what to do would be appreciated.   And it was the E09K I was thinking of.

Unfortunately I don't have a reciever with an spdif. I wouldn't mind using an external DAC/amp at all actually, as long as the price is not too steep. I'm not particularly fond of USB sound solutions as I have found them to be a little bit finicky from past experience. I would prefer something...

I have an spdif out connection from the onboard audio and hdmi out from the discrete video card.

I read that article but there weren't any comparisons of the STX to the DG at all. All the reviewer was comparing the card to was sound systems >$2500  and saying that it was functional as the cheapest option he would consider for headphone sound for the PC. He also used a lot of technical...

What about the essence specifically makes it a better sound card?    Edit: Remember, I'm a super newb!

I'm really new to this whole world so there might be more experienced people on here that know better than I do... but, I just got the Phillips Fidelio X1s and I LOVE them, and they were only ~$230 on Amazon when I bought them. They are my first pair of nice headphones (virgin ears ;) ). I'm not...

What is the difference in sound quality between the xonar essence and the DG or DX? It seems like a pretty drastic price difference to only be a slight difference in quality. If I could future proof myself by forking out the cash for the essence and the additional H6 add-on I would be willing to...

For some reason my GPU outputs a ton of interference to the cable from the front headphone jack--its super frustrating to listen to--I'm worried that an unshielded card might pick up some of this interference.

The xonar DG has no emi shielding though.

The xonar h6 7.1, is that a daughter board to the essence?

Thank you guys for the suggestions! As far as I can tell the xonar DX 7.1 does not have an amp included with it, so it is my understanding that this probably would not output at a volume significantly better than the current onboard sound. It also lacks emi shielding. I get a pretty large amount...

Hello all! First off, thanks for clicking on my thread. Secondly, this is my first post and I am a brand new member! Thirdly, I have a slight problem with a brand new pair of, what I guess most of you would consider entry level headphones, but to me and my relatively virgin ears they are...