USB DA recommendation needed

That is strange, b/c I thought musicians favored the Mac environment, so I figure they would have given more attention to that context. My Sonica hasn't given me any issues on my XP system.

Lots of good DACs in the $300-$500 range--stuff changes so fast that you can pick up state-of-the-art digital gear from a couple years ago for peanuts. I like Theta, and picked up my Pro Basic III for about $500... I used to run it with a Chroma, which also sounded OK, but a bit thin. I'd stay away from the Progeny.

When I was trying to do the same thing, there were a bunch of positive threads on the stereolink USB boxes:

http://www.stereolink.com

I had one, but, ultimately, I ended up ditching the stereolink in favor of an MAudio Sonica, which is basically a USB to toslink converter. I run that into a Theta Pro Basic III and then into the pre. Sounds better to my ears...

To my ears, the combination of the Theta and the MAudio Sonica sounds better than the Stereolink. My setup is actually sounding a bit worse right now, b/c I just moved the stereo across the office, and with some other changes, now have PC -> MAudio Sonica USB to toslink converter -> 36' of toslink -> MAudio C02 toslink to digital coax converter -> Theta. I just posted a Q in another thread--I'm looking for insights into whether I'd be better off with 36' of USB or some other device that is USB->coax digital and a long coax digital run...

I looked at the Slimp3 from Slim Devices for my other stereos, and ended up with a bunch of Audiotrons instead:

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/audiotron/producthome.asp

The Slimp3 (and the SQBX) are server push--means you have to have software running on a computer to push things out to the box. The Audiotron, on the other hand, indexes all the mp3s/wavs it finds in any public directories on the network and accesses them as you decide. Worked better for me. I do run one CD30 "server push" device in my bedroom hooked to a cheesy Nakamichi radio alarm clock. Might want to look at that too:

http://www.cd3o.com/

The ATron has ethernet, but no wireless (you could hook it to an 802.11 based bridge, however). There may be an issue w/wireless, however. For higher quality mp3s and wavs, the data rates of the 802.11 system may not be sufficient. Nominally, it should be good enough for most mp3s. The problem is that, in most cases, you aren't going to get ideal 802.11 rates in your house--depends on how many other 2.4 GHz appliances you have and how many floors/walls it has to go through.

The Sonica does require installation of drivers to, at least, reroute audio through USB rather than speaker output from the computer (it does on my WinXP box). My perception was that the sound quality was better with shorter runs of toslink, but the Q I asked was because it doesn't get to the quality of ATron-fed mp3 playback in my living room. There, the ATron feeds a Theta Casablanca via coax s/pdif, to a pair of ARC VT 100 Mk IIIs to a set of Proac RS 3.8s. The study system is Theta Pro Basic III (should be comparable to C/B as a DAC) into an ARC LS-16 pre into an ARC D240 Mk II into Proac RS2s. Should be comparable, but its not.

I think conventional wisdom is that coax sounds better than toslink, but I've heard contrary views expressed as well. I think its probably safe to say that on most systems, coax sounds better. The Sonica only has a toslink out, however. I've wondered about cracking the box open and wiring in an RCA plug--I think they use toslink b/c its cheaper to manufacture, but I've seen mods people have done to turn toslink into RCA... Heck, at worst I destroy a $50 box.

I seem to recall seeing that there was some known issue with the Mac's audio USB interface. You might want to call M-Audio and see if they have any insight...