USB DA recommendation needed

I installed the drivers, but I read in several places that the drivers were not needed. My next step was going to be to remove the drivers I had installed.
First I turned my computedr off. Next, I connected the M-Audio DAC and powered it up. Then, I turned the computer on and booted it up. Under system preferences -- sound -- output -- I select M-Audio. Then, under general system preferences, I also have an M-Audio logo. I clicked on that and chose Analogue output by checking the box next to it and taking the checks out of all the other boxes. Then, I checked the box marked 24 bit. Now, it works beautifully -- no more crashes. Not sure what I did that was different from before or if it just took turning the computer on and off a certain number of times before it straightened itself out. I'm not sure whether the driver was necessary, or not. It sounds really good. Big improvement.

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.