These things do not need HOLD for a device that eats 10-15W, It ain't a 100-1000W poweramp driwing 3ohm load and where voltage sag may occur. At such currents the copper wire and transformer delivers enough juice. The only thing those caps do is ripple filtering.
audio output from an external amp with bigger caps is the same as straight audio from onboard codecs? okei dokei...
Chinese tubes are not fake, they are Chinese tubes still with their markings and names, they are russian tech tubes made from impurer elements. The most often flaw to use them in circuits calculated for different tubes, they have different operational points, so don't complain about things again. People just like to bash on things they never held in hands and tried to use them actually in a proper way.
i have tried some "newage" tubes, how is that saying, "bite me once, wont bite me twice"? besides i would never recomend "tube stuff" in this thread, for christ sake, op is asking about audio quality between onboard and + external amp. would it be wise to let op spend 500+ canadian pesos on a chinese tube "powered" amp with tube valves that glow blue? please...
... THD, waaay less crosstalk and a bit higher dynamic range
...
I can't understand the heck you are saying... ASIO and Bitperfect is Bitperfect
although ive briefly mentioned a digital signal in my previous post (if using external dac), the reference to creative hardware was about the analog signals (crosstalk on digital signals?), and if you never noticed or perhaps didnt know, creative drivers had workarounds to prevent most of the crosstalk with embed "filters/rules" that removed most of the this hardware crosstalk on some of their cards (similar to the echo cancelation on todays microphones scenarios) (for instance, try a sound blaster live on a linux box or with unofficial windows drivers [cant remmember the name, ksomething, had a blue interface])
this is starting to go a bit offtopic, im afraid this thread will soon start to turn into a feud about cable pebbels and ps1 cd readers so ill just leave this here:
find someone with an external amp, op, and check the difference in sound, using the same headphones (you can use crappy ones, ones with bigger drivers are preffered) between just the onboard output and onboard passed through the amp. or you can get one of those cheap ass preamps, i mentioned earlier of fleabay, and check for yourself (the one linked mentions a complementary power supply to power it, but you can totally use a 9v battery hooked into the +&- to test it out, or better yet a 12v charger or the like). better bass response, same quality