Bought this exact DAC. It arrived today and everything sounds great again. Thanks for the recommendation. I used to assume DACs were completely unnecessary, now I'm wondering if the pricier DACs are worth it... another Reddit-induced wallet-abusing rabbit hole, here I come!

Yeah, I might have accidentally "corrected" the headphones by running them through the monitor. Ended up getting a cheap DAC and they sound great again.

Ended up getting a cheap DAC and all my problems were solved.

But they sounded perfect through the LG monitor. Do most people use DACs? Does anyone plug directly into the motherboard?

I think I might have lucked out with the DAC included in the LG monitor. It sounded perfect. Looking into cheap DACs now.

I’ll have to look to see if I have one of those dongles. I doubt it’s the headphones but it would good to rule them out as the culprit.

Thanks for taking the time to make those recommendations.

Solid advice. Thanks.

Thanks for the link. I was hoping there was just some box I needed to check somewhere or something but I guess each output has its own characteristics? It's crazy how different it sounds.