[xguntherc]

Hey guys. I'm hopig a few would have some ideas or thoughts on a good way to improve my setup here. If you see my sig I have a custom quad core pc, pretty nice as PCs are my forte. I built custom PCs for all types of people, water cooling. You name it

I have a X-Fi Xtreme Gamer running to the ghetto I know but got for damn near free Bose Companion 3 2.1 PC Speaker system. It sounds ok. Mainly used for gaming. I use headphones or IEMs for listeningto music
What will Be the best budget friendly upgrade to my PC audio situation without getting a reciever and some Energy rc-10s or something like that

I was thinking about getting a small RSA Hornet or a nice USB Dac/Amp from Ibasso. I could use it portable, as well as out my pc for my daily music listening. Would this probably be the cheapest and best way to improve my PC sound to headphones or IEMs. Or is there another idea?

thanks!

 

[1UP]

A modest headamp is a reasonable way forward (unless you're looking to deal with your speaker listening).

Your money goes further buying used, so check the for sale forum here.
Some ideas - no affiliation to any of these sellers:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f42/mi...inimax-464838/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f42/pi...ne-amp-457866/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f42/wt...p-mint-443358/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f42/fs...opamps-458824/

P.S. Greetz from "Fabulous" Las Vegas

 

[SP Wild]

I think you should not amp without upgrading source first. I still have a cambridge dacmagic that served me well - you don't lose much at all compared to say a mark levinson dac that costs much more. to put it better, amp tecnology has been relatively stagnant, whilst d/a cd process jitter technology is still improving.

 

[1UP]

If it was just music listening, I totally agree (source first), but he's also a gamer and would probably be put out to give up the SFX processing of his soundcard, so I was working around the idea of getting the best bang for the buck with the same source and headphones. A decent headamp doesn't preclude still upgrading either of those another time and should be more capable than the onboard.

 

[SP Wild]

My Yamaha reciever did me well for games and movies - surround processing output to headphones and games work better than straight stereo. I know the op doesn't want one - If one ever plays xbox shooting games with dolby digital 5.1 through speakers - one will think differently about these bargain basement versatile and very high quality capabilities of these mass produced box of goodies.

My entry level yamaha receiver will be the last thing I upgrade for speakers - I plan to purchase multi thousand dollard bookshelves for this amp. They drove my hd650 OK for music - great for movies and games especially with surround dsp for headphones.

Out of curiosity, is it not possible for these soundcards to output the digital sound of the processed data to a dac - ie dolby hp is processed digitally - sent to the dac and amp to repoduce dolby hp at the intended 2 ch analogue output? does this make sense?