Headphones in Ubuntu

I bought a set of Beyerdynamic DT660's (got them cheap) to use at work. But when I plugged them into the work machine (runs Ubuntu 12.02) sound quality was horrible. Bass was non-existent ans high frequencies intolerable. In other words it was impossible to listen to music. I first tried an equalizer (qpaq) and while it did improve the sound a bit it was still not good enough.

I just got a Behringer U-Control UCA202 USB-DAC with headphone amp and boy is this a big improvment! At 29€ a no-brainer. Installation was also totally painless. This would suggest the issue is with the Intel HDA driver. So if you hate the sound that you get from analog output from your Linux box, get one of these (or any other USB-DAC with headphone amp). You won't regret it.