[Dragnerok X]

Right now I'm running my Audio Technica ATH-M50s through my motherboard's built-in Realtek ALC888B "HD Audio" chip and something just tells me that I'm doing these headphones somewhat of a disservice. Granted, they aren't $1000 Grados, but I have the feeling that I might be able to get a little bit better performance out of these cans by either adding in a sound card or getting an external DAC.
 
What are my needs? Well I primarily just use my headphones, in conjunction with my iTunes library, as a kind of digital jukebox where I can just kick back and relax while listening to music. However, I still do my fair share of gaming on this machine, although the most recent games my system can handle are of the 2008 vintage. Think TES:Oblivion, Fallout 3, Counter Strike: Source, Team Fortress 2, Unreal Tournament 3, that kind of thing. I'm also into vintage gaming, with the likes of Diablo II, StarCraft and Unreal Tournament filling that void. So, while EAX 5.0 would be a nice feature for the more recent games, if it's even supported by them, I don't find it absolutely necessary. Even just basic OpenAL support should suffice.
 
I don't want to pay more for a sound card / DAC than I did for these headphones, so my budget is $100, perhaps $150 if I'm not running into diminishing returns. Other than that, I only have two other requests: if an internal sound card, a PCI-E 1x card would be preferred, but is not required, so not to get in the way of my video card's airflow. Finally, if an external amp / DAC, I'd want it to be cross-platform, where I could use it with as many of my USB-equipped computers / devices as possible.
 
Thanks for your time,

 

[Yoga Flame]

Oh well, since no one is replying...
 
Yes, a better DAC should definitely benefit the M50s instead of onboard sound.
 
Usual suggestions for external USB DAC/amp combos in that price range these days are:
FiiO E7
uDAC-2
 
Astro Mixamp should be good for FPS gaming. I think you can also hook up an optical TOSlink cable to it if your soundcard has that. Lacks power for some headphones, but will be fine with the M50s.
 
There's also the E-MU 0204 that just came out. I think it needs drivers unlike the above ones, but is supposed to be compatible with Mac and Windows.
 
Never used any of them myself, but people speak well of them. You can search around here for reviews.

 

[Roller]

As soon as gaming enters the equation, the selection becomes much more narrow, as you really only have Asus or Creative soundcards that are suitable for gaming. While Creative being quite infamous about their customer service and driver support along the time, they still are kings when it comes to pure gaming audio performance, but with music itself, they're not so good. Keep in mind that all other manufacturers only support up to EAX 2, as EAX 3-5 is still Creative's proprietary. Asus had quite a heavy lawsuit for claiming support for EAX 5, when their emulation layer, called GX2.0/2.5 only supports EAX 2. A better balance between gaming and audio performance would be something like Asus Xonar D2X (PCIe), as it does have hardware acceleration along with native OpenAL support.
 
It seems that M50s are quite easy to drive and not requiring an amp to have typical listening levels, though amping is supposed to open their sound a bit. From your current setup, it would be quite a leap from an onboard chipset to a dedicated soundcard, even if it doesn't have a headphone amp. On the other hand, there have been quite some reports on the headphone amp of the Essence STX being finnicky, but it's a more expensive card anyway.

 

[Dragnerok X]

At the moment, I'm torn between the X-Fi Titanium, the Fiio E7 and the uDAC2-HP. I like the X-Fi for its full hardware EAX support and feature set, but I question how much of a sound quality improvement I'm going to see, and am unsure whether or not the card provides a front-panel audio connection. As for the E7, it looks like it would be a cabling nightmare, due to the output and input jacks being positioned on opposite sides (how would something like that even fit in your pocket, without bending cables?). Finally, while the uDAC appears to be perfect for my setup, with the exception of no EAX support, I've heard that it heavily colors sound in comparison to the E7, which is a definite turn-off. I prefer to start with as neutral a system as possible, then color my sound through software equalization.
 
Thoughts?