PC Audio via S/PDIF question

The answer depends on the quality of the equipment you have.

If you have a very good sound card with S/PDIF out ( Lynx ? ), you're better off using that and a good cable.

If your sound card is ordinary, you have to use USB but you will need a good-quality cable ( cryo treatment is nice ) and a decent DAC.

if you need a USB-to-S/PDIF conversion box on top of that you'll need the S/PDIF cable too. ( 1.5 meters long, essential. )

Thanks Tobias. Since posting the question I've realized that sound quality via S/PDIF from will be poor (internal sound "card" is ordinary at best) & a that a USB to S/PDIF converter is the best route.

Yes, you are correct. For sending PCM via USB you don't need any sound "card" or chip to get involved. Make sure you use a player and "kernel streaming" to bypass Windoze internal mixer. There's a couple documents around that can help you set up the player. The Ayre site has one and so does the dCS site. And there's probably others. Sorry I don't have pointers to them easily accessible. There are links to them in some posts in this forum.