Do you have balanced headphones? If so, which ones? I have a pair of Sennheiser HD650 headphones. They aren't balanced, but I would have them balanced if I were able to get my hands on a quality balanced amp.   If not, are you looking at balanced headphones or a balanced amp in the...

Look through the options in SRS for something like "Default playbak device". Make sure the MSII is selected.

The HRT Music Streamer II is a good a choice as long as you have an amp to go with it.

Get an HRT Music Streamer II for $150 (or less if you can find it on sale) and than just buy a USB microphone.

I like my HRT Music Streamer II. It is powered through the USB bus, it has asynchronous USB and excellent sound overall.

There is this thing called jitter, you can do search to find out more about it. Basically, TOSLINK has a high amount of jitter associated while USB, especially asynchronous USB has very little jitter. Less jitter = better sound.

The HD595's don't have a lunch punch when it comes to base, but the base is very clean and it does sound good. I can't speak for the Ultrasones, but I have had by HD595's for about 5 years now and I have never regretted my purchase.

Hello, I am looking at possibly upgrading my headphones in the next 2-3 months and I am currently looking strongly in the direction of the HD650's.   I currently have an HRT Music Streamer II and a FiiO E9. My current headphones are the HD595's (which I would sell).   The music I listen...

There have been times that I have forgotten I am even wearing my HD595's.

Quote: I noticed a marked improvement going from my onboard audio to my $180 Xonar D2X. I noticed another huge improvement going from my D2X to my $150 HRT MSII. If I try and listen through the onboard on my laptop it is almost painful how bad it sounds in comparison to my MSII.  ...

Open all the songs you want to add to a playlist within foobar. Under "File" you can select "Save Playlist...". Now whenever you open up foobar it should come up with that playlist.

HRT Music Streamer II for $150. You'll need a RCA->3.5mm cable like the BJC I have.   I really love the combo with my HD595's.

I have a bunch of files in MP3 of various bitrates as well as a bunch of lossless FLAC files. I use a combination of an upsampler and a plugin called DFX. With these two plugins I can't tell the difference between the MP3 and FLAC files. If I disable these plugins the MP3 files tend to feel...

Take a look at the FiiO E7. AFAIK it is the best DAC in the price range you specified.

You could probably find a pair of HD595's or HD598's if you were willing to buy used, or take a look at Ebay.

I have a pair of Sennheiser HD595's. I was thinking of maybe trying to get a pair of HD650's with a nice after-market cable if I could ever afford it.

The FiiO E9 is a little over $100 and it sounds great with my HD595's, you could take a look at that.

There isn't really a lot right at the $200 price range. There are a bunch of things <150 and >250, but there really seems to be a dead spot right at $200. You could go with something like the FiiO E7 for ~$100. You can than add on a FiiO E9 amp for another ~$130. The only problem with the E9 is...

AFAIK the Windows volume control should change the power output to the speakers while the Foobar volume control should use an algorithm to reduce the volume of the music. You should get the best results by keeping Foobars volume maxed while changing the Windows volume.

USB cables have a digital and an analog component to them. The digital component transmits the actual audio data while the analog component provides power. A "better" USB cable will provide some filtering along with shielding the data and power lines in order to provide the DAC with purer power...

Just a quick question, do normal foobar plugins work with this? I have a number of DSP plguins for foobar (crossfade, DFX, equalizer) that I really couldn't listen to music without.   And what about WASAPI and FLAC support? I wont be able to move to a new player without these features.

Try DFX for Foobar. I really find that this plugin improves the quality of my audio dramatically, especially songs saved in lossy formats like MP3.

If you upped your budget a tad you could get a FiiO E7 which is a great entry level DAC.

The HRT Music Streamer II and the FiiO E9 would fall into roughly that pricepoint. The combination is quite excellent with my Sennheiser HD595 headphones.

Everything I have heard indicates that the FiiO E7 should be superior to the uDAC2, although you may want to confirm this with someone who has actually listened to both.