Hammer

Indeed

I wholeheartedly agree

Virtual Audio Cable. You may use as many inputs and outputs as you like. If you want to play the same on both the speakers and the headphones, no problem, if you want to play music on the speakers and voip on the headset, no problem

One of these would probably suffice: http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5mm-Earphone-Headphone-Audio-Splitter-1-Male-to-2-3-4-5-Female-Port-Cables-New-/161174058016?hash=item2586b8f420:g:g54AAOSw9N1VhBF1

I see! The Asus Xonar range of pci-cards is a safe shot imo. Just find one that suits your needs. They exist in virtually all price ranges, so there will probably be some that will fulfil your needs

First off, as people already have mentioned, theres no need to buy a soundcard unless your onboard sound is dead or something. As for something external I dare say it makes a huge difference if you have the headphones to follow up. So my tips is as following: First get headphones that are good enough, after that look into an external DAC, then look for a amp. Great headphones + decent DAC is waaaay better than decent headphones + great DAC imo. Personally I have great experience with both "cheap" and more expensive DACs and AMPs. It depends a lot on the rest of the setup. For a suggestion in your price range I have to say the CambridgeAudio DACmagic Plus is excellent, and in combination with a AMP (like DENON PMA-720AE) you will have some of the best audio delivered to your headphones (Just remember that the difference between a lossless file and some 128kb downloaded from youtube will be massively different, so prepare to spend money on music ) Source: Own limited experience, currently using Dacmagic Plus and PMA-720AE together with DENON AH-D7100 headphones

The most frustrating thing? Easy: How difficult it is to get your hands on lossless music from popular artists (without actually buying the CD, or pirating).

Mionix Naos 8200 all the way! It's by far the best mouse I've ever tried Good luck searching!

There's a lot of keycaps on eBay. To get a full set of european style keycaps I'd use WASD keyboards (http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/keycap-set.html) and choose one of the ISO sets, and just customise it in whatever way you'd like Other sites to get individual caps include: http://keypop.bigcartel.com/products (I have good experiences with this site) http://techkeys.us/collections/keys http://www.keycapsdirect.com/index.php http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/?l=product_list&c=40 https://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=access,cherrymxkeys

I'd have to suggest the Mionix NAOS 8200. It's a beast of a mouse, and by far the best I've ever used (and that is the reason I bought it for myself some two years ago, and it still works and looks just as it did fresh from the box.)

The Xbox One controller acts just like the 360 when in game (so if the game supports the 360 controller it will support the One controller :rolleyes: ). In my opinion the Xbox One controller feels a lot better than the 360 controller (it's newer, so I kinda expect it to be better...), and with the wireless dongle for the one controller there is really no disadvantages to it . (Unless you're on OSX, because then it's a hassle to get it working properly )

Doesn't all phones have a DAC...

Tbh, I would get the Bose Qc25. I know they are over the budget, BUT: They sound better Will probably last longer They will certainly provide you the quietest environment in public. You will probably be more happy in the long run (Sorry for forcing my opinion here, but the way I see it it's far better to buy quality the first time around ) Good luck searching

I'd use it as a living room PC, connected to the TV. Nice small form factor makes it fit right in, instead of a big bulky traditional desktop

Congrats! Hope they are able to drive your headphones pleasurably

The headset looks really nice, with the nice wood ear cups, and minimalistic branding (tbh the logo itself looks amazing). 50mm drivers does not sound too shabby either

yes

The QC25 have quite some improvements over the QC15

The new Bose QC25 are noise cancelling when you turn them on, but they work just as fine audio-wise without batteries (no need for batteries for them to work, except if you want the active voice cancelling). There are no such ting as active noise cancellation without batteries, the only option would be to get a closed back headphone for passive noise reduction as someone suggested earlier in the thread.

Back to topic: I usually go for the CD if its possible. Otherwise i find the ACC file you get trough iTunes quite. If you really want the lossless files it's always possible to buy a lossy digital copy and then just torrent the lossless files from elsewhere (as long as you buy the music, the artist gets his/her share) (Even though you should never torrent etc etc) It's a real shame that there are no online shop that have i.e. the same catalogue as iTunes but with lossless files...

Hehe, I can imagine. Nice results though!

Haha, indeed. Figured it out after I posted

Wait what, this post is from 2014. How'd i get here... Anyway, did he buy the HD800s?

Well, if he have the money to spend, why not go for the Sennheiser HDVD 800 (the DAC/AMP made for the headphones). If he is truly serious he should get the balanced cable as well (Sennheiser CH800 XLR-cable).

That looks really good! How much time have you spent on that already?