[kalston]

Hi, 
So I own a nice EEE PC 1005HA that is fine for what I do and has a great battery that still lasts about 9-10h (exactly the same as when I bought it 1 year ago) when playing music. I actually use it instead of my iPod 4G because I can have ALL my music on its HDD and it also has a better battery (yeah my iPod battery is really horrid now). Sure it doesn't fit in my pocket but that's ok as I mostly use it in transports or when I'm not at home but rarely want to use it when walking (still doable with a bag anyway)
 
Thing is though, the onboard audio has issues:
-mic entry doesn't even work anymore and I occasionnally need it for Skype etc
-the sound is overall not that great and now that I got used to my Superlux HD668b + an Asus Xonar DS soundcard on my main rig (and a bitperfect playback through foobar2000)... it's just impossible to use it. 
 
I tried a cheap USB soundcard (Terratec Aureon Dual USB) and needless to say, it works fine for Skype but is awful with music. I tried different headphones, IEMs, player settings etc and the distortion is pretty bad (especially on the highs) and I simply can't stand it.
 
What would you advise me to do? Just get a good portable USB soundcard? 
 
I'll be using both IEMs (when I'm in a noisy environment) and sometimes the Superlux headphones with it (when I'm sitting somewhere quiet). 
 
About the budget, well I'm not sure yet, but since I'm starting to care more and more about sound quality I suppose I should allow myself to spend more than 20€ (the price of that USB soundcard I got). I will probably also get some better IEMs (RE0 most likely) since those things are really handy sometimes. 
 
Thanks!

 

[Mad Max]

You should save up at least 71-115€ for a decent USB amp/DAC.  You might want to put off that RE0 for later even though it is quite a nice earphone.

 

[kalston]

Yeah, I do want to get better audio out of my PC before getting the RE0. 
Not really sure what USB amp/DAC I should be looking at though... I don't want it to be overkill, obviously. 
 
Edit: been doing more research on these forums and it looks like the FiiO e7 could do the trick... think I should pull the trigger on this one and just keep the Terratec for Skype etc?
 
I didn't mention it in my original post, but I listen to decent quality stuff (320/VBR0 mp3 mostly and a tiny bit of FLAC) 

 

[Mad Max]

The E7's amp is a joke.  I don't know about the DAC, though.  There's also the Nuforce Icon Mobile - probably not a whole lot better than the E7, but it has two headphone jacks and a mic jack to boot.
Then there are several USB units on fleabay, just look them up here or on google for reviews and comparisons to see if they are worthwhile.  Avoid HA-info gear.
There's a bit more gear around that price point, I think, but they are on their own websites.
 
Mega thread on portable amps, some include DACs.