To avoid hijacking another thread, I'd like to ask Alec, and all of you, is the soundcard of my laptop, an Asus X5DIJ series, which has Via HD Audio installed, considered to be of HiFi standard? I'm ripping CDs in WAV format, and downloading music in as high a resolution as I can. I have a Fiio E7, which can be used either as a USB DAC, for occasional playback via my main system. I'd welcome opinions. To my ears, the laptop sounds quite good through phones from the laptop socket, buthave not reached positive conclusions using the USB output, with the Fiio as either DAC or headphone amp.
Cheers.
Cheers.