Computer output to DAC, which route?


I have disbanded my main system because I am using my computer system more and more. I am going to purchase an outboard DAC for my computer, but I want to know something:
My computer comes equipped with COAX and TOSLINK outputs on the motherboard. Should I use one of those or use a DAC with a USB connection? WHat are the pluses and minuses of each way if any? I am using typical Altec Lansing speakers (good for what they are) but will probably move up to active Dynaudio monitors in the future. All music is sourced from itunes in either AAC or apple lossless formats.

Thanks in advance!
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USB is pretty pathetic. Firewire does blow it away. For $200 - heck - $150 - just get an ESI Juli@ soundcard. it blows away the usb at a much lower cost.

USB sucks - plain and simple. Use it to connect your mouse and printer, not a dac...
Don't believe everything you read. USB is great if you select the RIGHT USB interface. Beats 99% of transports at any price. Just get an Off-Ramp 5 and Dynamo power supply. It blows away everything, including the very best PCI cards and Firewire interfaces.

PCI cards suck, plain and simple. I have had most of them, including the $2K Lynx and RME cards. Most of them have PLLs for the Master Clock allowing them to sync to an external word-clock. Really bad idea. Only a free-running Master Clock oscillator is capable of low jitter. My customers send these PCI cards to me to test with my reclockers because they have such high jitter.

Here are some customer reviews of good USB interfaces:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/news-and-reviews/off-ramp-converter

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/news-and-reviews/overdrive-dac

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
After selling my Wadia 861 CDP in 2006, I've utilized PC audio since then.

I consider it a canard to make conclusions mainly, or solely on audio output types.

Thus, my experiences suggest that the correlation between output types and sonic results is NOT one that is particularly informative, or useful. Thus, it wouldn't be one that I would recommend using for decision making.

I would suggest that a DAC be chosen based on its sonic capabilities, NOT on the type of its output.

Limiting oneself to a computer based output type is akin to limiting oneself to other audio types -- e.g. tubes vs solid state; box speakers vs horns vs electrostats vs ribbon and planar magnetic vs open baffle speakers; digital vs analogue; etc.... Each of these output types have their pluses and minuses. More importantly, each can be executed well and others, not so much! The same can be said for DAC output types.

If there were one type of any audio output source or method that was better than all of the others, this hobby would be much easier to master and we wouldn't need so many posts in a forum such as this.