@Chris@VargasTurboTech I'm not sure audio is any worse than cars when it comes to BS meter stuff lol.
I've not done much on the computer audio side - I'm not an all-in-one stereo kinda guy (i.e., it can play records, it can do AM/FM, it can play cassettes, but it's not that great at any of them). So for me that means, "good" is good enough. You're never going to get a decent amp "on-board" for lots of reasons, including power.
Now ... if you want to get creative, outboard an amp and get some quality monitors (sky is the limit on choices) and feed sound via your soundcard - you can probably get good signal that way. Pre-amp can be done however you tastes desire.
I'm just finishing up the sound system in my car - car is a horrible environment for audio, so it is really just a project for the sake of projects. I've built several tube amplifiers for guitars. I'm a bit of a gear head. In my luthiery shop, I built a modified tube stereo amplifier: a Dynaco ST-70 with all the trick bits - transformers, caps, matched high-end tubes. It powers a rare set of Klipsch Epic CF-4 V2's which took me about 18 months to find - the brainchild of Roy Delgado who was Ray Klipsch's right-hand engineer and prodigy I suppose. My luthiery shop is also a crap place to listen to music - no redeeming features about a room laid out to do work not listen to sound. But that's where I spend lots of time, and it is a pleasure to fire all that stuff up. In my garage I have one of the new Bose Revolve+ setups - superb for the garage by design - 360 sound, rubberized, loud enough and good enough sound. Put it anywhere and its decent.
On my pipe dream list is to build a Tractrix horn in paper mache, and a woofer cabinet. I'd like to have all my sound equipment made by me - would be kinda fun. But honestly I just drool. I have so many projects I juggle all the time that I don't think I'll be stupid enough to execute on the Tractrix horn.
Good luck on your setup, and let us know how it goes!
Filippo