So you love music, you've got a pretty good set-up at home but the day-to-day reality is you listen to most of your music on headphones while working at your computer.
Well Audioquest's DragonFly - a flash drive Digital-Audio-Converter - is aimed at you.
It connects to your computer via a USB and essentially by-passes your computer's sound card. At the end of the DragonFly there's a mini-jack where you can plug your computer speakers or headphones. There's no set-up required, drivers are installed automatically - plug it in and you're away. First impression was, wow this is loud.
Compared to my normal listening volume - around 95% on the PC controls - the music fairly jumped out of my headphones - and I had to adjust to around 62%. Bass was also emphasised, it was tighter and more fluid but at some expense to the top-end.
Streaming Higgs Boson Blues - the stand-out track on the recent Nick Cave album Push the Sky Away - on Rdio the DragonFly gave a much better representation of the drums, and the sense of space and people playing live in a room.