[edb]

I plan to buy a soundcard soon, Echo Gina 3G in my mind. I will save more to buy an amp, but not in the near future. So I am wondering if the headphone output of the card is good enough to drive a can like HD650? I know a soundcard can't replace an amp, but it's satisfactory for me if it's able to drive HD650 to 70% of its potential.

 

[LeChuck]

Are you using a laptop? Because if not, I would suggest a PCI based solution like the E-MU 1212m; by using PCI you bypass the firewire/USB bus which is favorable in my opinion. The Echo probably has fairly good digital decoding capabilities, but I don't know anything about the unboard amp, although I'm sure it can drive the 650's to a listenable level.