My E1405 has a constant hiss from the sound card when driving my 16 ohm IEMs. Its pretty obvious it was never meant to handle this impedance. I'd like to get a replacement device that doesn't have the horrible hiss.

Any suggestions? All I need is stereo for headphones. I don't care about ASIO/KS/48khz or whatever. Resampling is fine. I'd like it cheap, and to have decent audio quality though.

I searched the forums but found mostly people arguing about very high end parts that are completely overkill for my needs.

Thanks.

It seems to me there have been a couple of posts asking about USB devices at $30 or less. Not being interested, I don't recall any manufacturers, but maybe a Google search for USB audio will turn up some of them.

how about this one;
http://www.provantage.com/voyetra-tbs-1120-01~7VOYE015.htm
(home page http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/a...producthome.asp )

see how happy she looks;

The larger version of the voyetry soundcards (SRM/Roadie) had transfer-problems on my Latitude D820. Sometimes, especially when switching from/to fullscreen, the sound would get noisy until you unplug/plugin the card. It was so annoying that i sold it again.

- Lyx

well, i should add, that i didn't test any, i would easily recommend the pcmcia echo indigo series (sitting in my laptop), but thats another price range.

So far that looks like the best option, and the price is nice. However the RMAA results look a little troubling:

http://166.70.233.190/rmaa/Turtle%20Beach%...age%20Micro.htm

And thats for unloaded. I'm afraid that once I plug my IEMs in, it won't fair much better then my current on board.

For the amount you want to spend, you're most likely not going to find much better than your on-board sound. I use an M-Audio Transit USB and it's great. It can be had for ~$80 online, or cheaper if you go to Ebay and look for used ones.

I use a Turtle Beach AAM because my laptop's analog output is very noisy. I only noticed a very slight amount of noise modulation in quiet piano passages of a CD I have, so the D/A might not be optimal. But for $20, it is still well worth it.

ff123

Did you happen to try it with 16 ohm headphones? Or any IEMs? Thats mostly what I'm worried about. My laptop sounds fine with my HD-280s, but on the IEMs it goes to crap.

I only tried my Beyerdynamic DT990 pro's. I think they have somewhat high impedance, so I don't really know how they would perform with your headphones.

I'm leaning towards the UCA202.

RMAA results look great:
http://www.birotechnology.com/soundcards/h...202_hp-line.htm

And its surprisingly cheap. Thanks for the advice.