Are external DAC's a meme or do they do they actually make

nooooot really, they can be handy as a headphone amp but you'd be hardpressed to hear a difference.

maybe if you were spending $500 or more on speakers.

I got a DAC/headphone amp two-in-one because when I got a new mouse, I could hear this faint, high-pitched buzzing whenever I moved the mouse and was not listening to music. I have not heard the buzzing on the DAC.

In that sense, it made a difference, but if you're looking for some other kind of difference, it simply isn't there.
www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733.html

Reminder as well that anything above 16 bit/44.1kHz for casual listening is placebo/bloat.
https://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

I've got a fiio e10k and ad900x's.It makes a difference.Big? No,especially with lower end audio hardware.Got higher end headphones? yes.

>>58039941
Thanks for the links. The test was surprising

>>58039941
This

>>58039864
It completely depends on how good your motherboard's DAC is.
Many new motherboards are as good as it gets for human listening.

tl;dr If you don't hear any noise just don't worry about it.