My setup finally together:)

[aevans]

I too am using my pc as a head unit.. my denon universal player died a few days ago.. I would not recommend running straight to the power amp, I got lots of noise when attempting this.. the pre in my system acts kind of as a buffer for the crap sound card..

also as you are playing on a pc you can do some interesting things with DSP, check this out:
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/media/ozone.html
it's a tube amp emulator.. some of the settings are a little goofy, but for extended background listening w/o fatige I can listen to this all day long. some details do get pushed to the back, but just being able to listen for extended periods makes it worth while for me. I use the "subtle analog modeling" setting. If nothing else it can serve as a cool distraction and a free way to try out a new sound.

[audio amateur]

I too am using my pc as a head unit.. my denon universal player died a few days ago.. I would not recommend running straight to the power amp, I got lots of noise when attempting this.. the pre in my system acts kind of as a buffer for the crap sound card..

also as you are playing on a pc you can do some interesting things with DSP, check this out:
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/media/ozone.html
it's a tube amp emulator.. some of the settings are a little goofy, but for extended background listening w/o fatige I can listen to this all day long. some details do get pushed to the back, but just being able to listen for extended periods makes it worth while for me. I use the "subtle analog modeling" setting. If nothing else it can serve as a cool distraction and a free way to try out a new sound.

I'd give it a try if it was free. I like to keep the signal free from EQ's and such. The fact is, I'm using an external DAC which means the signal is pretty clean, a hundred times more so than that of the line out.

[aevans]

it is free, the only thing you get for additional money is more presets. click the download now button and then choose your media player.

I hear you on the EQ, and for critical listening I don't use any filters, but for recordings that are crappy (anything from the beastie boys, etc) I have heard improvements in the listenablility.