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
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.
Just a note, USB 1.1 doesn't have the bandwidth to play more than 2 channels at 24bit/96khz. Companies are slowly coming out with USB2 and firewire devices that can play multi-channel audio at this resolution, but the original USB, a.k.a. USB 1/1.1 is too slow for more than 2 channels @ 24/96. It will play 16/48 (or 16/44.1) x 6 channels (5.1) Just something to keep in mind.

I have been using an Extigy for a few years, and it does well with DVDs because at 16/48 it compares very well even to the newer M-Audio line in SNR, Frequency Response and THD. It falls a little behind in 44.1 which is a major shortcoming of this device, in addition to the lack of multichannel higher resolution audio.

I'm waiting for M-Audio to release a USB2 Theater so I can have one device that does it all.
returned the audiophile and got a edirol ua-5.
sounds pretty damn sweet and needs no drivers for 16bit sound.
It is pretty universal since it has optical and coax as well.
Of course a week after i got it m-audio released new drivers for the audiphile to fix the crash problem in panther :-(

now i wouldn't mind borrowing somebody's theta to compare :-)
Update -- Bought an Apogee USB Mini-Dac. This is waaaay better than the M-Audio Audiophile! The M-Audio introduced time smear. Apogee has a better clock solution, smear is gone, full, rich, detailed sound, deep wide holographic sound stage -- I've found what I'm looking for! The Apogee cost $976, which is about five times what the M-Audio USB DAC cost, but I couldn't be happy with the M-Audio DAC -- I am really pleased with the sound of the Apogee. You can go from your computer, to the Apogee, to your amp or powered speakers --- no need for a pre-amp.