USB DA recommendation needed

When I was trying to do the same thing, there were a bunch of positive threads on the stereolink USB boxes:

http://www.stereolink.com

I had one, but, ultimately, I ended up ditching the stereolink in favor of an MAudio Sonica, which is basically a USB to toslink converter. I run that into a Theta Pro Basic III and then into the pre. Sounds better to my ears...

Check this out:

http://www.audiomidi.com/common/cfm/product.cfm?pid=386

Here's another one -- quite expensive:

http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/minidac.php

You've got me a little worried. I have a 1.25 GHz G4 Powerbook and just got the M-Audio USB Audiophile. Hope it doesn't crash my computer. What do you mean when you say, "crash." You mean, like, have to re-boot, or do you mean, like, have to take it in for repair? You've also got me looking for other sound-cards just in case this thing causes problems. The Apogee sounds like a nice unit, but it costs $1,000+. I'll be curious to hear if others know of alternative USB or Firewire DA sound cards that are Mac compatible.

After reading up on the Apogee Mini-Dac, I am all but sold. It is expensive, but it sounds like the real deal for turning one's computer into a digital transport with a digital output via USB and converting the digital into high quality analogue. If the M-Audio USB Audiophile isn't all it is cracked up to be, the Apogee will be my next stop.

You can get the Apogee Mini-Dac for around $1,000, get the Mackie HR824's used for around $1,000, use your existing computer for a transport and have a great stounding system for less than the $2,500 you were going to spend.

The Apogee is extremely Mac Compatible. You don't even need to install a driver. I've read that the Mac will recognize the Apogee upon installation and away you go.