What high end onkyo system? How large is your room? How far do you sit from the speakers? Not sure if you need an external DAC depending on your avr.
okay, this is the 5th freakin time I'm trying to respond to this. I try to add something at the end and instead it refreshes the page and I loose it all.
I'm using an Onkyo TX-SR876 with Onkyo THX 7.1 'wood' speakers that were from an all in one package that I also bought at the time. That system is now in my kitchen with a pair of Yamaha indoor/outdoor speakers for listening in the kitchen and the deck.
My system is in the basement and taking up the whole room, 12'x20', with a work table and drafting board on the opposite end of the computer (displays are on the short side). I'm running three 46" LED TVs in surround mode for gaming in 5760x1080. All 7 speakers are mounted on the walls, side speakers directly to the side of where I sit, back speakers on the far wall, and raised a bit, on each side of the drafting table. All calibrated with the receiver for distance, balance, etc.
I have my eye on a pair of
Beyerdynamic DT 990 Premium 600 ohm HiFi headphones and
Creative Sound Blaster E5 High-Resolution USB DAC 600 ohm Headphone Amplifier with Bluetooth. They are within my price range and I like the reviews I've read. I'm interested in the Creative Labs E5 because it will also work with my Samsung S8, which also supports 32bit audio. I also use the full version of Neutron Music Player for audio on my phone.
I'm also looking at the
ASUS STRIX RAID DLX Sound Card with high end DAC, 600ohm, 124dB SNR audio. That would cover my 7.1 and headphones when I go to use them. Newer sound cards don't use EAX any more, but they do 'advertise' gaming enhancements, and reviews do say they are great sound cards, and usually an overlooked, important component in a gaming system. But they are usually compared to onboard audio; I have never seen any review comparing them to the HDMI of a GPU (not to mention, that also depends on where the HDMI is going to - the A/V Receiver). So, I'm trying to find out if there is more immersion with a gaming sound card over the HDMI in gaming. One thing I did notice in some games is the 'fading' from one speaker to another wasn't very smooth. It would go from center channel to side channel instantly, not fade over. Not sure if that's a matter of the game not being written well, or a matter of the HDMI isn't meant for gaming.