skidaner

Thanks for your recommendations! I use a PS Audio DirectStream DAC and have found the USB and SPDIF coax inputs to have better SQ than its optical input. Even using an old AQ analog RCA cable sounded better than my new AQ Vodka optical cable! This could all be cable related and I may not have found the right optical cable yet. I've not heard of the RME HDSPe AIO card before. I'll check this one out today.

Thank you for your recommendation SeeHear! It was very informative and not long winded at all. I think personal experience are the best reviews! I found one other card on the ESI web site, the Juli@ XTe. Very much appreciated. Thanks again!

Thank you so much for this link. I'll be checking it out tonight. I've been searching the web for an audio card with SPDIF coax because in the past I've always heard what I thought was better SQ than Optical or USB. However, my searches keep finding USB/SPDIF converters.It seems like USB is the current standard for computer audio output. Has USB progressed to the point that its SQ is equal to SPDIF coax? I read the review of the Baetis Audio XR2 Media Server by Kal Rubinson in the September 2014 issue of Stereophile. He could not tell the difference in sound quality between the SPDIF on the XR2 and the SOtM USB on his CAPS Zuma v3. Maybe I should give up my search for a card with SPDIF coax output and just use the SOtM USB card that comes with the Small Green Computer C.A.P.S. v4 Pipeline. Thanks again!

Chris, Small Green Computer recommended I get the SOtM USB Digital Interface USB to S/PDIP converter in place of an audio card. Can someone please recommend a thread that discusses computer audio cards. Thanks, George

Chris, I contacted Small Green Computer to have them build me a CAPS v4 Pipeline with an S/PDIF coaxial card. They're not sure what card to use because it was not specified in your article. Did you test any S/PDIF cards?

First time postng. Regarding the SQ of the Baetis Audio SPDIF versus USB. I found a September 2014 Stereophile review by Kalman Rubinson of the Baetis Audio XR2 Media Server. He used a C.A.P.S V3 ZUMA (JRIVER Media Center 19 ) with a SOtM USB and found it hard to tell the difference in SQ between the two. Please see review for details. http://www.baetisaudio.com/Stereophile_Baetis_Review_September_2014.pdf See last page of pdf.