[E-PaiN]

Behold my paint skills!
​(click for bigger)
 

 
So I've got headphones, a laptop that I'm going to be using with a thunderbolt dock, and a vintage gaming rig for my A3D needs.
​I'd like to hook all this up to a central device in such a way that audio quality improves and I no longer need to swap my headset to different sources all the time.
​
​My budget is flexible, but not crazy, say around €300 ...well definitely not more then €600

​My usage is 75% gaming and 25% music (any genre)
​
What device would you recommend me getting, and which interfaces (see bigger picture) should I be using?
​
​Thanks in advance on the recommendations!

 

 

[Roseval]

What you need is a pre-amp with volume control, headphone out and various digital inputs like USB , SPDIF
Most of the time it is called a DAC
To get you started; something like this: http://www.asus.com/Essence-Hi-Fi-Audio/Essence_One_MKII/

 

[MajorRocker]

I use to use this http://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x-fi-surround-5-1-pro and with this you can get a DAC and amp. This has optical and rca out so you could forgo the DAC.

 

[E-PaiN]

Thanks for the suggestions.
The MKII is quite poorly available, and quite above my budget, the Creative seems to have what I need.

I'll have a closer look at other Essence One products as well, cheers!


More suggestions are welcome, too!