[A Love Supreme]

I've used an X-Fi Titanium for over 3 years and it just now died so I'm looking to replace it with something much better while still affordable.
 
I'm going to be using it with a Little Dot MK III paired with HD650's if that helps at all.
 
Cheers

 

[Nunyabiz]

Claro Halo
It is a whole penny under $200 but the best sound card for the money.
Has a great Head Phone Amp
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271004

 

[majestic12]

There's a wide range of USB DACs that you could use to send a good signal to the MKIII that should be under your budget.  As far as sound cards go, The Xonar Essence line is generally held in high regards with those wanting better audio quality on their PCs. 

 

[A Love Supreme]

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
majestic12 I know absolutely nothing about DACs, but are you implying that just buying a DAC would be better than buying a soundcard of the same value?

 

[majestic12]

It's tough to say.  Some of the higher-end sound cards have really nice DACs in them already.  For about the same amount of money as an Essence/X-fi Titanium HD/Omega Claro Halo though, you could get a Maverick Audio TubeMagic D1 with a decently powered headphone amp built into it.  You could hook up a bunch of other devices to it as well and it could be a better way to go.  There's a lot about it here in the forums and definitely worth looking into.  The rage lately for external stuff has been the Fiio E7/E9 combo that looks promising, but I haven't heard it personally yet, but it's worth looking into as well.

 

[A Love Supreme]

Much obliged.
 
I already have a decent headphone amp (Little Dot MK III) so the Maverick probably isn't for me. I'll try to search around for a good standalone DAC.

 

[sonci]

Is it the one with the shield?
Creative cards used to be very hard to die, good SQ seems to have a cost..
Quote:

I've used an X-Fi Titanium for over 3 years and it just now died so I'm looking to replace it with something much better while still affordable.
 
I'm going to be using it with a Little Dot MK III paired with HD650's if that helps at all.
 
Cheers

 

[sonci]

If the digital out of the card still works, then you can hook up to a receiver,
so you`d  have DAC+HPAmplifier+speak Amplifier+ etc all in one,