[maKe]

My main problem is that almost 99% here uses headphones (wow, nice one Sherlock) and I don't, so almost everyone raves the built-in headphone amp sq on the cards/dacs and doesn't really tell how good it's un-amped analog output sounds.

I was considering the Asus Xonar Essence STX, EMU 1212m or EMU 0404usb until I today found out that this little china device seems to better than the Essence. The Musiland Monitor 02 US DAC

I'm running just a mid-end 2-channel system worth about $3500 or so and my sound source is only going to be PC at the moment.

Heres the setup:



Right now I'm using 5-6year old Sound Blaster Audigy PCI card and I can't really describe how poorly everything sounds. Basses are boomy and uncontrolled, and it feels there is 2 inch thick rubber curtain over the speakers. I tested these with my friend pretty newish onboard asus HD soundcard (realtek chip maybe?) integrated to the mobo and wow. Now I want that wow feeling in my own room.

I play sometimes but my main concern is 90% music and 10% gaming. No need for fancy eax or any other emulations. Just pure, neutral sounding 2 channel is all what I need. Would the Musiland do all these and be better in sq than the above cards, or do I still need a good card and then upgrade to external DAC if I want better sound?

How is the Musiland software compared to Asus or EMU? Google did not show very good pictures of it, and it was full of chinese letters too.

 

[_Spanky_]

Maybe look into the Maverick DAC?
Maverick Audio - Tube Magic D1 DAC + Headphone Amplifier + Tube PreAmp
Maverick Audio DAC/Amp - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

It's got a tube preamp out that you might like...

 

[maKe]

Thanks for the recommending. I do like tube sound alot, had a MuFi X-canV2 + X-PSU and HD600 combo for 2 to 3 years. Now I'm more a solid state guy and finally went with speaker gear.

That unit looks promising and with nice inputs/outputs, but I just bit the bullet and ordered Musiland Monitor 02. I like the fact that I can use it as a transport for 24bit/192khz signal for external DAC if upgrade bug gets me.

I'm still pretty confident that the Musiland is a big improvement over my pos audigy, and my gear realllly needs a decent source.