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Are you certain that the card is causing these issues or have you tried to RMA the card?

If you are certain you want to move away from it then the Asus Xonar Essence ST/X is most probably what you're looking for, incredible for headphones Take a look and the masses of reviews online.
I have the STX and use Sennheiser HD595 or HD25-1 II with it for music/stuido work and my god i love it, probably the best PC component purchase in 5 years. The quality is outstanding, the power from the card is overkill of the phones i'm using but i'll be using this card for some time to come and will no doubt purchase some more hard-to-drive phones in the future.
No driver problems
No crackle/hiss/distortion problems
No negative feedback from me

I also use it via my Onkyo receiver (analogue connection) and Cerwine Vega! speakers, couldn't be happier with the DAC (well... without spending a GREAT deal of money on an external DAC anyway..)
 
Are you using windows 7 x64bit (or any 64 bit OS)

I'm having the same issue with my x-fi titanium fatal1ty. At first I thought it was my new speaker set but have replaced the speakers with a much nicer set/receiver. When listening to high quality audio files they sound great but several youtube videos and COD black ops have TERRIBLE cracking/snapping sounds.

I read that this has to do with creatives cards and 64bit. There are supposed 3rd part driver fixes but I can't get any to work.
 
Rossi~ said:
Are you certain that the card is causing these issues or have you tried to RMA the card?

If you are certain you want to move away from it then the Asus Xonar Essence ST/X is most probably what you're looking for, incredible for headphones Take a look and the masses of reviews online.
I have the STX and use Sennheiser HD595 or HD25-1 II with it for music/stuido work and my god i love it, probably the best PC component purchase in 5 years. The quality is outstanding, the power from the card is overkill of the phones i'm using but i'll be using this card for some time to come and will no doubt purchase some more hard-to-drive phones in the future.
No driver problems
No crackle/hiss/distortion problems
No negative feedback from me

I also use it via my Onkyo receiver (analogue connection) and Cerwine Vega! speakers, couldn't be happier with the DAC (well... without spending a GREAT deal of money on an external DAC anyway..)
Click to expand...

I agree. The Xonar ST/STX is the way to go. I have the HT-Omega Claro Halo XT and it uses the same C-Media chip as the Xonar. I love my card to death, but it's downfall is that it's still an PCI Interface so I don't know how much longer this one will be able to travel with me on future upgrades (breaks my heart). The Xonar ST is the equivalent card and is on PCI-E instead. So I suggest that one instead of my own if you're looking for high quality headphone or speaker output. My Klipsch's have never sounded so good. :)
 
If you're willing to spend good money, I would move the audio hardware out of your computer case and get a DAC or receiver as others have suggested.
 
If you are mainly using headphones then don't get a receiver. They don't actually have very good amps for the headphone outputs, only good amps for the speaker outputs. Get a dedicated headphone amp with an integrated DAC.

For a $300 budget you could get this:
http://www.audiophileproducts.com/fubar4
 
I'm not entirely sure what the Fubar IV gives you over an Xonar Essence ST/X at all, let alone the extra $$$ it is.
 
Rossi~ said:
I'm not entirely sure what the Fubar IV gives you over an Xonar Essence ST/X at all, let alone the extra $$$ it is.
Click to expand...

a soundcard is locked to a computer and physical slot compatibility [laptops dont have pci slots]

an external dac is more versatile and has a better [cleaner] power source

sound quality is going to be the same between the musical bias sound cards and the sub $300 dacs [as they use primarily the same hardware]

id say the biggest pluses with a dac are its portableness and the external power supply
 
How about getting a portable headphone amp with a built in DAC? You can also use these with a laptop and any portable music player.

Check out the Fiio E7 or the Headroom Total Bithead.
http://www.fiio.com.cn/product/index.aspx?ID=7&MenuID=020301
http://www.headphone.com/headphone-amps/headroom-total-bithead.php

reviews:
http://anythingbutipod.com/2010/03/fiio-e7-headphone-amplifierusb-dac-review/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HeadRoom/Total_BitHead/1.html

Or if you're really into fiio, pair the E9 desktop headphone amp with the E7 to be its DAC.
http://www.fiio.com.cn/product/index.aspx?ID=19&MenuID=020301
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/518997/the-official-fiio-e9-thread-with-video-unbox-review

The Cheapest place to get fiio stuff reliably seems to be from dealextreme, but you can sometimes get better prices off of ebay.

I don't own any of this stuff, but do have one of Fiio's E5 mini headphone amps... for <$20 it's pretty cool. I've been wanting to get one of those USB DAC headphone amps, but decided I didn't need one since all my good headphones: Grado 60 and Ultimate Ears Triple-Fi are easy to drive, so don't necessarily need a high power amp and plus I don't listen to all that much high quality music on my computer (anyways like you I have a receiver with half decent speakers connected to my computer) so I just cheaped out.
 
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