[Selbi]

I'd finally like to get rid off my onboard crap and switch to a soundcard or DAC. My share of usage is about 50/50 between 2.1 speaker system and headphones.
 
For speakers, I got the Edifier S330D and so far have plugged in via Toslink to cut down on electrical interference. However, the built-in DAC in the speaker set is absolute garbage. Onboard sounds way better, minus the hissing.
 
For headphones I actually have two right now, Sennheiser HD 598 and HD 600, as I'm yet to decide which ones I'll eventually keep. This is also caused by my onboard, which eats a lot of bass on the HD 600, making them actually sound worse than the HD 598 in this situation.
 
Therefore, I'd like to get some entry device to improve my audio oomph. The Fiio E10K (link probably not required) is basically recommended by everyone when it comes to headphone amplifiers. Problem is that I don't use headphones exclusively, I'd like to have something that can deal with headphones and speakers. A possibility would be an aux splitter after the Fiio, where one end leads to my headphones and another one to my speakers, but that sounds like missing the point and would also require a lot of annoying hardware fiddling every time I want to switch between the two.
 
Thus I've landed at the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD as an alternative, which is especially awesome because its aux inputs are quarter inch, so I can finally use my Senns without an adapter.
 
I don't know what to do here. Not just limited to these two options, of course.

 

[Redcarmoose]

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/nuforce_icon_e.html

Nuforce makes a bunch of different ICON products and the speaker amp/ headphone amp/USB DAC has been discontinued. Though I own one and love it, so I can recommend it. Try to find one for $199 or less?

The speaker wires use small plugs.

Also note it can be confusing as they make about 5 ICONs which all look close to the same.
http://m.ebay.com/itm/NUFORCE-ICON-2-Integrated-Desktop-Amplifier-USB-DAC-NF-ICON-2-BLACK-/181966635561?_trkparms=aid%253D222007%2526algo%253DSIC.MBE%2526ao%253D1%2526asc%253D20150519202348%2526meid%253D470fd810137f4af3a5c665afb514f243%2526pid%253D100408%2526rk%253D12%2526rkt%253D13%2526sd%253D181866147790&_trksid=p2056116.c100408.m2460


Still you may be better with a small Schiit stack and a different amp. The above is limited and really high tech back in 2009. Though would work well, offer the EBay seller $199. They sound good even by today's standards, both speaker amp and headphone DAC/amp.

Cheers!

 

[Selbi]

Sorry, forgot to mention that my budget is limited to 100€, which is why the Fiio and Creative were good candidates. I'd also not like to go with discontinued products for warranty's sake.
 
Schiit Fulla actually looks interesting. Unfortunately, I live in Germany, and it looks like they don't have any retailers here, so I gotta import from the US. That's 30 bucks for shipping plus the extended shipping time oversea if I don't take a express, making it even more expensive. So that's a nope too.

 

[Tablix]

Have a look into audio interfaces on Thomann.de  may find something in your budget, I personally own several interfaces but none that I own come within your budget.  Also look into b-stock/refurbished interfaces, you may get some good deal.  The problem you may find is an interface like this may not throw out enough power to properly drive your headphones, that I cant advise on personally.

 

[atarione]

I think the SMSL SD793-II might be worth a look also..should be in budget about $65~ here in America.
 
https://www.amazon.com/SMSL-SD793-II-PCM1793-DIR9001-Amplifier/dp/B00A2QLPJM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8