PROBLEM SOLVED!! I just purchased a musical fidelity V-link and it works perfectly. Definite improvement over the stock USB input and perhaps even more importantly it works with my EE dac and doesn't have drop outs. As others have mentioned above, as did the guy from morningstar audio, the Sabre DAC is very sensitive to jitter from its inputs. The Stello U2 and the halide bridge have too much jitter for the EE DAC to work properly, if at all. Don't waste your time purchasing either or any other high jitter devices if you have the EE DAC. The V-link has virtually zero jitter and hence works like a charm. I've also heard from others that the hiface works as well with the EE DAC. I'm assuming that other very low jitter devices like the wavelength, off ramp, and audiophileo will also work, but haven't tried them. Let me know if anyone has tried any of these with the EE DAC