The card has been designed to provide the best audio quality for stereo speakers and high quality headphones.The Xonar HDAV 1.3 provides better analog quality then the D2X for analog output, but it is also hard to find. The Essence has optical/Coax digital output so you could use that however,the DAC quality of most of the modern cards will easily surpass the DAC quality on the Z-5500's so in most cases analog connection is preferable. Hope that Helps.
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