ASUS may well be my only choice for my next PC, since Creative dropped 7.1 and have only 5.1 on the newest cards.

hopefully phoebus hardware wise is very good, software wise could use BIG improvement. i check their forum daily and new driver is ready, they should post it soon. but in Asus terms not sure if soon is soon enough for us...

So it doesnt have a built in amp for headphones?

Cirrus Logic was never an audio chip I would consider as a quality audio chip. Has something changed?

are these sound cards still an improvement over the new soundcor or whatever its called on new mobos? and if so is it a huge difference?

Yeah, sound cards... I'm yet to see one with proper driver support like Realtek. Especially ASUS is notoriously bad, almost like Creative. Back then I bought the most expensive one -for the time- and while the hardware still working flawlesly, no proper drivers after the first year. Now I'm more than fine with onboard ALC889 which is decent and have it connected with my Z5500 via Optical SPDIF for movies/music and Direct 3.5mm for 5.1 in Games. The only thing I miss is the ability to have CMSS3D Surround but Copy... Like Stereo x2 ( which my Z5500 have it ) + Center.

onboard is crap compared to good sound card, but asus don't support their high end sound card. hmm even motherboard they support light years better.