what to get for a better audio quality?

recently i have become kind of a picky elitist in terms of audiophilia i bought an ath m50 pair of headphones a few months ago but im not kind of fully satisfied because the audio stage sound too small for gamingthe volume is a bit too low on certain type of music withoutan amp on the other handmy sony walkma mp4 it sound better because of the built in equalizer but when plugged on my desktop gygabyte z77 hd4 motherboard it doesnt sound as good the volume certainly could be higher the ath m50 sound better when plugged on my father old 1998 denon av receiver but at the cost of lower audio quality because of the audio rate being 48 000khz i am simply looking for a better audio quality experience without blowing my 200$ budget ( in canadian currency) because im dirt poor , only can have acess to prepaid gift card and i no way have acess to credit cards , should i either get a fiio e17 e11 dac amp ,get a better pair of headphones or save for an av receiver.for my headphones

m50s are supposedly good in sound, but the soundstage is iffy if that is what you want. I had the sister headphone pro700mk2 also by audiotechnica which is the bass-ier one compare to m50, and I didn't like that as you said the sound stage is small like in ear level. You can always sell it like I did. Bought myself an ultrasone dj1 (or hfi580) and never looked back, bassy with good sound stage for a closed headphone for a reasonable price.

I'll go for a cheap sound card like xonar dg which should be louder and get you going.

Check out headfi there is a lot of info there.

For gaming purposes, you want an open back headphone. This increases soundstage, imaging and fidelity. You also don't suffer from bloated, unrealistic bass, drowning out the rest of the sound.

The pair I use are the Sennheiser HD598's which have excellent mids, neutral highs so they aren't ear piercing and while the lows are recessed, they are plenty good enough. This headphone is considered one of the best competitive gaming headphones you can buy. There are cans that are more competitive but have absolutely no bass and are rather clinical sounding such as the Audio Technica ATH AD700's or AKG Q701. If you get Q701's though, make sure your sound card is good enough to properly drive them.

And then of course there is an extremely cheap budget pair that sounds like headphones at 8 to 10 times the cost. This would be the Superlux HD668b or Samson SR850. Both are practically the same however the 668b's are a little higher impedance and have an Audio Technica headband while the SR850's look more like AKG K240's. They do lack in build and comfort but when it comes to sound, they are like a hybrid of the AKG Q701's and the Beyerdynamic DT990's.

I'd recommend getting the A900X headphones first this will make a much bigger difference then amps or dac you can add those later if you want. Its a really great sounding headphones even without any EQ although they do benefit from EQ. They have a really huge sound stage this gets said alot about closed headphones but they really do sound more like an open pair of headphones then a closed pair but obviously the best open headphones will have it beat here but it really surprised me how large it was actually took some time to get used to it coming from a pair of HM5 Headphones and CKM500 IEM and its pretty damn precise to in positioning considering how wide it is. I don't see how you can be disappointed with these once you have a listen to them.

http://www.amazon.ca/audio-technica-Art-Monitor-Headphones-ATH-A900X/dp/B005TCZIQA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419748814&sr=8-1&keywords=A900X

I personally wouldn't get open headphones for gaming though at least PC gaming due to lack of noise isolation my fans ramp up pretty loud when gaming I get better sound quality with a good closed pair or some high quality IEM like the Audio Technica CKM500 then open headphones although I do like the openness and airiness that you can get with a good pair of open headphones but it be more for music listening or watching videos where my fans aren't spinning so loud.

Also I wouldn't recommend getting the AD700 it has a fatal flaw of not having deep bass its frequency response takes a huge dive past 100HZ. EQ helps but its just such a big bass rolloff you can't fully correct it. I own both the AD700 and A900X and the A900X is the superior sounding headphone except for sheer size of the sound stage and its also more comfortable but then again few headphones can compete with the AD700 there like soft fluffy pillows on your ears with barely any clamping force honestly this is there main selling point there extreme comfort with good sound quality besides the bass response also the sound stage is truly massive but not very precise in positioning.

@DJ_Headshot:

I guess it all depends on your setup but I know I certainly won't game without my 598's. Any closed pair I've ever used doesn't allow me to accurately track footsteps, gunfire or explosions.