Coax SP/DIF to USB..thoughts?

My experience is that ultimately the sound quality is about 50-50. While at lower levels the DAC makes a bigger different as the quality goes up the difference equalizes and really high end sound requires both at the very highest level. My streamer is actually more expensive than my DAC.

If you place a great sounding streamer with a marginal DAC, you will not be that happy, OTOH, if you place a great sounding DAC with a marginal streamer, this will still be very satisfying. At the highest level, it all matters, but my ratio still applies. Cabling and connections matter as well. So does all of the set-up and upstream/downstream gear. BTW, what to you is the 'lower levels'?? 

@daveyf 

I'd try an Aurender UC100 converter, at $700 it's not cheap but you may be able to get one used. I use their UT100 usb to fiber converter and it works just great. 

I'm not going to argue the pros or cons of USB sound quality, I just don't like it due to it losing connections between equipment if I jump around tracks too quickly. Every other SP/Diff connection I use simply locks onto the signal.

Best of luck and enjoy that DAC.

@treynolds155 Thanks. That looks like a very good option if one is using a Aurender upstream.

@daveyf I don't know how universal this is but I think it will work with most streamers that have a usb output. I've used my UT100 on a MacMini M1 without any issue at all. Windows would probably need a driver which could be an issue but I think a streamer would just see these devices as a DAC.