Audio recommendation

[Napalm Frog]

Okay, I've been recently trying to think things out on what the next step of my audio evolution will be.

I currently have an X-Fi XtremeMusic, as well as an M-Audio AV40 and ATH-AD700. Everything sounds fine and nice, however as some people may have read in other posts I have made, I get weird crackling under heavy usage after cold boots (but not after I restart). This has been making me interested in a USB DAC. Additionally, because I foresee moving from a desktop to a laptop about one year from now, and am rather mobile (I move at least once a year), so I don't see an investment in a large receiver. And I am not looking to upgrade the speakers/headphones for at least 3 years, so please don't recommend that.

My audio usage is 85% music (mix of WMA lossless, vinyl via line-in, and some LAME MP3 at low bit-rate), 10% video (rarely DVD quality), and 5% gaming. I don't really care about EAX any more, however OpenAL support I think is key, due to the FPS games I play.

Would a USB DAC be a viable alternative right now? Or (ignoring the annoying need to restart after turning the PC on) is my X-Fi sufficient to drive my needs? One other thing is, I found this sweet deal on a HotAudio Bit Perfect (or there is a Destroyer for even cheaper, what is the difference anyways?), so even if the X-Fi is adequate for another year, it might be good to jump on this now in preperation for getting that laptop. Unless someone else has an equivalently priced DAC alternative that ships cheap to Canada.

EDIT: Found this, looks good, worth the extra $50 CDN?

 

[jtd]

I don't think it's the headphones, before you decide to buy a new pair, plug them in to something else to test it.

X-FI sound cards are horrible to my experience

 

[Alai]

FUBAR II will be awesome for the money, especially compared to soundcards. Same thing with HotAudio. He makes some good bang for the buck stuff.

You have pretty solid output gear, so an upgrade in source components will be a great upgrade.

 

[Napalm Frog]

Meh, I bit the bullet and bought the Fubar III. Will be here by Friday. I love dealing with people (rather than corporations) that only live an hour away.

 

[Alai]

Nice! Let us know what you think.

 

[Napalm Frog]

Just got the Fubar III in the mail, and after hooking it up, all I can say is wow... I wasn't really expecting to hear much of a difference between it and the X-Fi right away, but I definitely can. The first thing I've noticed is that the lower ends on my AV40 sound cleaner. I was satisfied the the AV40s beforehand, but with certain types of music the bass sounded... weird. Not boomy/muddy, but muffled or something. Now it's very clear. Mids are a bit tamer than I am used to, but I tend to appreciate the accentuation on instruments over vocals any day (however, on vocal-centric music, such as Regina Spektor, this doesn't hold true). As a result, indie/folk/acoustic music is sounding great. I threw on some Said the Whale as my first test track, and the two previous points definitely held true.

As for the other end of the spectrum, I threw on some Fear Before the March of Flames, and then some Fear Factory, and the first thing I noticed was the high hats in the left channel sounded... Real? At first I though it sounded fugly, but then I realized that's the way they sounded in band practise, lol.

All in all, I thing the biggest impacts I hear are on drums (all around), and on louder acoustic guitar tunes. I'm gonna throw on some classical and electronica later, and see it holds up in those musical genres.

However, I do have one major complaint. There are two LEDs on the front of the DAC, one green one that lights up when the audio source is active, and a blue one indicating power. The latter is so bright, it's freaking blinding me. So, I have the DAC two feet to my right, pointing at a 90 degree from the wall. The LED is a lot more tolerable to handle peripherally. Sadly I'm not really an electrician, so I don't know how comfortable I would be to mod this.