There are a number of products out there that enable you to play digital music from your PC through your stereo system. I am inerested in the type that has a wired hook up and uses some kind of external sound card to by pass the sound card on the PC. Does anyone know something about these devices?
From what i've been reading,most peoples opinions are that a usb connection from the computer is better than toslink (fiber optic) and better than spdif (digital coax/orange rca) people believe that using a spdif cable creates jitter(this is bad).
The lowest solution is an "M-Audio Audiophile USB DAC". Im thinking of going the next step up and getting the "waveterminal U24" usb dac. To upgrade these later you can buy a seperate DAC like the "Benchmark DAC1 $1000" (usb wire to waveterminal, then spdif to seperate DAC1, then analog to receiver)but you are introducing spdif cable into the process(jitter)
If your going to spend that kind of coin why not just go with the "apogee mini DAC" $1000. I'm not sure if these $1000 dollar items produce much better than the waveterminal though(4 times the price and 5% better???). The apogee mini dac also has xlr analog outputs which requires special connectors(still researching). I forget the names of the three that are more expensive than that, or you would be buying an external DAC and getting a usb connection custom built into it.
I'm new to this and there are many more products that will do the same. These are just the ones i've heard the best things about(which is all opinions of course). maybe a more knowledgable user can correct me on any of this.