Will this even help?

[Rainbrew]

I've got some new nice Sennheisers and I'd like to give them a bit more oomph without spending much at all. I have CX300-II headphones with a rather short cable and was considering attaching them to an external sound card. They're currently being run by the front panel headphone port on my case and the audio is the motherboard onboard which is a Gigabyte H61M-D2H-USB3. I found a cheap external soundcard called the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Play 2 and was wondering if it's even worth picking up. Thanks in advance!

 

[Guest]

I'd be shocked if it made a difference.

[Rainbrew]

I'd be shocked if it made a difference.

What then would be a rather inexpensive external soundcard that would make a difference? Are there any brands I should avoid or anything I should look for? 

[Guest]

What then would be a rather inexpensive external soundcard that would make a difference? Are there any brands I should avoid or anything I should look for? 

 

Is there a budget for all of this? Are you happy with the audio quality that you are getting right now from the  Sennheisers?

[Rainbrew]

Is there a budget for all of this? Are you happy with the audio quality that you are getting right now from the  Sennheisers?

I am quite satisfied however seeing as many people claim that adding a soundcard to your setup greatly increases audio quality compared to motherboards I'd like a taste of the budget audiophile's life and I'd like to spend about 40 USD, preferably under that. Additionally something on my motherboard causes a very high pitched sound to appear once in a while which is annoying and unpleasant to my ear.

[steini1904]

You'd be shocked how unsatisfying going from absolutely 0 to a low-end external setup can be.

 

There is only little point in investing in anything below a mid-range setup with proper DAC + Headphones ($200-$300) if your computer is already able to address your ears ^^