urza26 Seeing you're more of an expert than me: With regards to positional audio (mostly with respect to gaming), when going for onboard audio plus an external DAC, aren't you then borked by the Realtek drivers?

I'm currently using a Xonar DX and Steelseries 7H analog headset, but I'm a bit fed up with the floppy power connector on the Xonar DX, so I'm looking for alternatives atm.

My motherboard has an ALC892 audio chip btw.

Gaming audio is dead in my eyes. And btw I do not use onboard at home, I have a Titanium, but SPDIF wise they are so buggy as well so I use pure analog part of the sound card a bit modded though. At work I use DAC + SPDIF gives lot of pop ups and etc funny things and it depends on driver versions even, some have some don't. Very nightmarish and even depends on motherboard due to timing issues. As far I know at last Catalyst fixed their HDMI audio giving same dropout problems etc... ehh... what a world we live in, have one seen ever Realtek's driver change log :D, funny thing, the ones that worked flawlessly on SPDIF are M$ generic driver, you cannot have both worlds.Gaming audio, well it is a matter of taste... if an explosion or bullet hit sound more or less distorted :p, so there is some kind of reason limit... environmental processing, Doppler effect (witch OpenAL isn't capable of handling), creative chopped this all of now... it is dead and Microsoft put the stick in Creative's heart and killed it by releasing Vista/Xbox years ago, so it is all the same now.I am concerned more for music and only stereo. And I guess if you fix that department, gaming is also good. At work I use headphones(Beyerdynamics DT-150, because they are rugged as hell for daily use and high impedance thus I don't care for the wire length and output device much), and DAC. I drive ether with a Tube OTL or Solid State output on the end, of course both are my hand made, just depending on sound material and mood.And the connection using Floppy/IDE cables. yeah I've repaired dozens of PA equipment like mixers or compressors, they tend to oxidize and crack as hell if a high current passes through with time, we solder them to together without connectors, a immature engineering solution indeed.My suggestion? Pick up a cheapest Sound Blaster X-Fi SB0460 (ebay now 20$) + PAX drivers(plaind driver without bling bling SW crap). Their 4556 opamp will do the job as it should, and drivers are now ironed out, price performance is unbeatable for that combo. And kicks all teeth of this upper Reckon to buy card.Ideal is X-Fi Titanium HD or seek for Auzentech's Bravura or Forte, they are pricey, but their analogue performance is very solid! Hats off to those guys. And that is what you seek off.