The noise floor is the main issue with most cheap sound hardware.  It&#x27;s often loud, and not spectrally flat.  You&#x27;ll be able to hear more of your music at lower volumes if you get a high quality DAC with a low noise floor.<p>The other big issue is distortion&#x2F;nonlinearity.  This is much less of an issue than the noise floor, but can still be noticeable on cheap DACs.<p>It&#x27;s likely that you can do a lot better than a $5 DAC on both of these factors.