spartan2600

Good points about the EQ, but like I said, I use headphones 98% of the time. I use Beyerdynamic 770, 880, and 990 (600 ohm). My current DAC is the PICO USB DAC, and my amp is the Wooaudio WA3+, with an assortment of tubes. I have a kimber PBJ RCA IC between the dac and amp, and usually go with foobar w/ ASIO when I'm listening to music, or just the zune software. Judging by that, I would probably guess the Lavry is a bit beyond the level of some of those things, but within the same ballpark. I suppose I couldn't mic my headphones for automatic EQ adjustment- or could I? I just have some basic logitech speakers for when I don't feel like headphones, so there wouldn't be much point sinking money into calibrating those. And I'm sticking to headphones for the foreseeable future, since I'm with roommates for the foreseeable future.

Yes! I've heard a lot about the Lavry DA-11, its been recommended to me before. Sadly, it a bit out of my price range. Maybe someday. The mic calibration sounds like a great idea, and I didn't think there'd be something for only $100, but would it matter if I'm almost always on headphones? What I mean by "EQ" is something you can manually adjust; like this http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3hdwJtONk-FTCrdG3FpBEw?feat=directlink Is there a more specific name for that? /edit You mean one of these: http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/ECM8000.aspx http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/C-1U.aspx That's fairly cheap, I might get one just to fool around with.

Room correction sounds like a great idea, too bad I don't have a decent mic. And bass boost is nice too, but neither of those can replace a regular EQ. oh, and I use headphones 98% of the time (beyerdynamic and grado).

I have Windows 7 Pro x64, and use my Xfi Titanium for games and general stuff, and my PICO dac for music with ASIO. I haven't had any real problems, in fact, 7 is better than Vista. I can now switch between audio devices without having to restart the programs. With Vista, I had to quit firefox/zune/foobar/vlc/etc. in order for the new device to get used. The only issue is that I can't find a free software EQ for 7, since the Zune software has none. The only option is to use Foobar.