[hbuus]

I'm getting a Sound Blaster Z sound card soon in order to use the card's virtual surround sound in games, however the SB Z comes without any form of external volume control for the headphone amp.
(There are two other SB Z cards (Zx and ZxR) that comes with an external volume control, but I've read that this controller is of poor quality so I'd like to stick with just the SB Z.)
That means I'm gonna have to adjust headphone volume via software, which I'm not a fan of.
Thus I'm wondering:
 
Is there some kind of - preferably cheap - external electronic device that lets you control the volume of the Sound Blaster Z?
 
The SB Z has these connections:
 
Headphone: 1 x Amplified 3.5mm jack
Speaker Out: 3 x 3.5mm jacks (Front,Rear,C/Sub)
Line / Mic In: 1 x 3.5mm jack
Optical Out: 1 x TOSLINK
Optical In: 1 x TOSLINK
 
I guess I could buy a DAC with optical in and then run the sound optically out of the SB Z and into the DAC, but is there an alternative to doing this?

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I'm getting a Sound Blaster Z sound card soon in order to use the card's virtual surround sound in games, however the SB Z comes without any form of external volume control for the headphone amp.
(There are two other SB Z cards (Zx and ZxR) that comes with an external volume control, but I've read that this controller is of poor quality so I'd like to stick with just the SB Z.)
That means I'm gonna have to adjust headphone volume via software, which I'm not a fan of.
Thus I'm wondering:
Is there some kind of - preferably cheap - external electronic device that lets you control the volume of the Sound Blaster Z?
The SB Z has these connections:
Headphone: 1 x Amplified 3.5mm jack
Speaker Out: 3 x 3.5mm jacks (Front,Rear,C/Sub)
Line / Mic In: 1 x 3.5mm jack
Optical Out: 1 x TOSLINK
Optical In: 1 x TOSLINK
I guess I could buy a DAC with optical in and then run the sound optically out of the SB Z and into the DAC, but is there an alternative to doing this?

 
Guess you could try just plugging an external headphone amplifier straight into the SB-Z headphone jack.
Schiit Magni, $99.
The only two connections on the SB-Z that can output SBX/EAX headphone surround sound is the headphone jack or the optical port.
The FiiO D03 is a low cost optical DAC, $25-$30
The FiiO D07 is $43
Schiit Modi optical DAC, $99