Well, who knows? Your motherboard could have a well-engineered headphone out that transparently reproduces sound across human-audible range... or it may not. I doubt anyone has measured its performance, and mystery headphone jacks are a crapshoot. But I'd say if you can turn the volume up to 100% with loudly mastered music and bear to listen to it, you don't have enough headroom. That said, if I'm going to shell out for a standalone unit that lives on my desk, I'd get something a bit more endgame than the E10K (in the $150-200USD new range)