moviegameguy

Thanks for all of the great information! I looked over all of the suggestions, and I will be looking into the Musiland Monitor 01 US a bit more. I see that they are listed for $76 on eBay, so if all goes well after a bit more review hunting, I look forward to hearing better sound on my system!

A bit of background info: Using on-board Realtek ALC888 (Says can play up to 24/192) I have Sennheiser CX300 in-ear ear-buds. What suggestions would anyone have as to upgrade my setup to be able to enjoy .flac files to a greater extent? I am assuming that my next step would be to get a USB DAC with headphone amplification, would this be a good direction to be taking? If so, what would be a good USB DAC for under $100? After looking at some of the specifications of USB DACs, would an external DAC in the 16/48 to 24/96 range really be better than an on-board 24/192? Or should I instead focus on purchasing a higher cost/quality pair of headphones, such as a circumaural headset, or is my Sennheiser in-ear pair good enough?