I agree a better song should have been selected that had more range and less synthesized sounds. None-the-less, I could hear a difference on my setup. I have USB cable connected to a Nuforce Icon2 and the Windows 7 passes it as 24 bit / 96000 Hz. The speakers connected to the Icon2 DAC are Paradigm Mini Monitor v.5. I ripped my collection to FLAC, under the assumption the equipment I use to listen to my music will likely increase in quality, so using a lossless format means I wouldn't have to rip again to hear a better sound.

I agree with the posts that your use an external DAC instead of a sound card. I went with Nuforce Icon-2. It takes a USB input from your PC, and has special cables (CAT-6E RJ45 to RCA banana) for standard non-powered speakers. I currently have it powering a pair of Paradigm Mini-Monitors that are resting on speaker stands next on either side of my desk. The combination sounds fantastic! My only wish is that Nuforce would come out with a newer version that had more than 24 watt per channel.