[Amputate]

Hi,
 
At the moment I'm using a Asus Xonar Phoebus with HD650s.
This card sounds quite nice but I've had it up to here *hand goes over the moon* with this card.
It causes random bluescreens, issues with anti-cheat in games and the drivers tend to crash for no reason at all.
The problems are common enough for me to smash my keyboard (poor thing never did anything).
So long story short, it has to be replaced.
 
Now I don't really have that much experience with computer audio so that's why I'll need some help.
If it's important at all I'll state right of the bat that I only use headphones and listen primarily to drum & bass, and I'm slowly falling in love with jazz music. (but still mostly dnb)
Speakers aren't out of the question but because of my current living situation it's not really possible to use them at this time.
 
So I'm probably looking for a new USB DAC and Amp or a combo.
I've been reading up on the Asus essence one but all the available info is so vague on that one.
The thing I absolutely love about my current sound card is the Dolby Theater which provides very nice equalisation.
Does anyone know if the Essence One supports Dolby or not?
But regardless if it does or not I'm not set on this particular product especially considering that my current asus card is freaking me out.
 
I'm on a budget of around and about 300~ish Euro.
But if someone suggests something that really is worth it I'll squeeze out a bit more
The only real criteria that I have is some sort of audio alteration. (Could be Dolby, or simple bass&treble buttons)
 
Any pointers you can give me are more then welcome

 

[loki993]

Silly question but I have to ask, have you tried updating the drivers for your sound card? What OS are you using? Whats the bluescreen error?
 
I don't have a xonar so Ive never used them, but in Nameless' pc gaming audio thread there is a link to some custom xonar drivers you could try out too if you wanted. 
 
Dont get me wrong, Im not trying to steer you away from getting an AMP and DAC. Im just putting out some other options that you may not have to if you didnt want to. 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/593050/the-nameless-guide-to-pc-gaming-audio-with-binaural-headphone-surround-sound

 

[Amputate]

Well, the Xonar Phoebus has had very bad driver problems from the moment it was released.
I'm a computer nut that overclocks everything that touches my system
Also I've been going over my problems with some members of overclock.net and republic of gamers and sadly, they have similar problems.
As a final test I gave my soundcard to a friend for a few days and he started to randomly bluescreen as well so that's nice x.x
 
Thanks for the link btw
It'll make for some good reading ^^

 

[loki993]

Yeah it will. 
 
Oh well probably just a bad card or something then maybe. Or like you said just horrible drivers

 

[Amputate]

The initial drivers caused your computer to freeze / bluescreen when you played battlefield (no joke, google it )
The horror x.x
 
Anyway I found a dude in france who was willing to sell his Asus Essence One for 250€ so I jumped on it.
I'm curious to see how it'll perform.