What would you buy Sub $350 Firewire/USB DAC

>>The Bel Canto box is $500. Includes a short length of Stereovox digital cable. I don't believe they are gouging us at this price. Rather, it shows what it takes to do USB right.<<

Just to clarify--that is the price of the connector and the DAC is a separate purchase? If so, this product may be out of my price range.

Yes, that's just the "box". It's $495, the DAC3 is $2495.

Ouch! I am sure that it is worth it (rave reviews) but that places this option way out of my price range. I'll have to wait until later in life to purchase that level of quality.

What I am looking at is nowhere near the level of the Bel Canto, but it has to be better than using my M-Audio FastTrack Pro as the DAC.

Is the Bel Canto USB converter available yet?

The USB to SPDIF box need not be an arm and a leg. There was a brilliant small device called the Waveterminal U24 which helped launch this whole evolution a few years ago. Trick is that it got its power from the USB cable which carries 5v - ergo no costly power supply, no big case etc.

Then Hagerman came out with one.

The hot ticket now for under $200 is the BlueCircle USB Thingee.

All these devices take the data from the USB and move it over to SPDIF. Neat, simple and compact. I can tell you from experience that I found that it took a very good SPDIF cable to make this work its best.

I do not believe that USB implementation is all that difficult. What I believe is that most audio manufacturers have their head in the sand hoping that the whole computer thing will go away.

That is why companies like Keces (and there are many others, just my current fave) who have a global perspective on the mass market are investing in figuring it out and evolving it.

What is wrong with this picture? USB/SPDIF conversion box $500, SPDIF cable $500, DAC $2500, allowance for power cords and tweaks $750... You don't need to spend $4,200 to get great sound from a $100 hard drive and some free software... think about it.