Improve Headphone Quality?

I have a Clevo P170HM and a pair of B&W P7 headphones and using my phone the P7 sounds great, however plugging directly into my laptop the audio is woeful. The headphones are not very loud at all and sound amazing flat. I have been told that a headphone amplifier may be a good idea so had a look around and there have been some decent reviews on the REsonessence Herus but it's quite expensive. Any other suggestions please?

 

Plenty. It depends on your budget. What you need (and what comes highly recommended) is a portable DAC and Amp combo (unless of course you prefer a desktop set up) . For portable DAC/Amps You could go value for money = Fiio equipment such as E10, E17 etc (look for second hand equipment at the other forum which is easily found via google) or you could get something a little more high end such as ibasso equipment.

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I'd just get something like the Creative X-Fi Go! and see how that works out.

One of the best of the cheapo's, and 90% of the people who recommend >$100 interfaces probably won't be able to tell the difference in a level-matched blind test.

$35.

However if you're definitely looking to go highfalutin', take a look at the Meridian Explorer. B&W-esque aesthetics allied to good performance. Almost ten times the price of the Creative tho: http://www.amazon.com/Meridian-Explorer-USB-DAC/dp/B00BCJWTAM

 

Yes, for playing lossy degraded audio. Creative is serviceable at very best. And the drivers are buggy and bloated. And many a Creative has unwanted annoying resampling. So, for those who have good hearing other cards are far, far better. And especially for those of us who record and create music. And who use quality headphones.

 

Yup... 90%.

 

Fiio E17 DAC.

If you want virtualized surround (HRTF) sound processing to emulate 7.1 positional audio through 2.0-channel stereo headphones, get Razer Surround software. I won't go into a lengthy discussion about this topic (unless you want me to). Just know the short version is that Razer Surround software is what you want in this case, regardless if you use onboard audio or an external DAC like the Fiio E17

Fiio makes multiple different products... All targeted at headphone amps or headphone DACs. Fiio is well regarded in the headphone community for providing very high value for the price you pay.