USB DA recommendation needed


I have an apple G4 cube that i want to use as jukebox for my stereo. I am looking for an external soundcard that gives me good sound. I am getting a Linn Majik, which has only analogue inputs, so the soundcard should have rca jacks.

I tried the m-audio firewire audiophile, but it crashes the cube all the time, even though it sounds great. I also tries an imic and it sounds horrible, but works flawlessly.... so maybe usb is the way to go.

What other options are out there? not needing drivers is a plus.

thanks!

O.
runner77
Does it work after sleep?

Would you mind trying it without the drivers? I dont want to waste $ on shipping stuff back and forth again.
maybe m-audio has an answer...
Hi, I used a IBM laptop with 40GB HD and a M-audio Sonica theater for digital output. I compare it to Theta Data II transport (cost $2800 years ago) and Theta sounds way better. I would like to know if Audiophile USB or any other USB sound card digital output would be comparable to a good transport. I really want to use laptop + USB sound card as transport for digital source..

My system is Theta Pro Basic II DAC, ARC LS15 pre and Aragon 8008 Amp, NHT 3.3.

Thanks.
The M-Audio USB Audiophile sounds pretty good, but a little on the "dark"
side. I'm not satisfied -- I'm looking for better options. I think a good solution might be to use something like the M-Audio USB Audiophile to take the digital feed from the computer, then run a SPDIF from the M-Audio USB Audiophile to either a good DAC like your Theta or to a pre-amp with a good DAC. Haven't tried that yet. Otherwise, I am very curious about the Apogee Mini-Dac. If you could find a good USB DAC, you could skip having to use a pre-amp, you could go right from the DAC to the amplifier. The Mini-Dac has gotten great reviews, but I'd feel better if I could hear a review from it from someone here on the 'Gon. The M-Audio USB Audiophile goes for around $200, the Apogee Mini-Dac goes for around $1,000.



Very odd, M Audio is known in the pc music world as having the most stable drivers. That, and the sound, is what drew me in. I've been using the firewire audiophile for a few months now with no crashes (on a PC though--A REAL computer:) I would also like to experiment with a DAC. The sound is quite good and so far beyond my last internal soundcard that there's simply no comparison, but it seems slightly less full than my cdp. I haven't compared any other external cards. My only complaint is that the volume controls on the actual unit aren't even remotely linear. Sometimes half a turn will drop the volume to zero and then it can take as many as 10 full turns to get the sound back. (If using the software volume control or the processor volume control this is not a problem) This is a known bug and will be addressed in the next firmware release.
Update --- I connected the M-Audio USB Audiophile to my Mac G4 and then used the SPDiF output to feed the signal in digital to a Proceed AVP2, using the DAC is the Proceed -- this sounds way better. For a comparison, it beats the hell out of a $400 Denon CD/DVD player. For casual listening, I could live with this sound.