Usb or Optical

Thank you for your reply I'm going to try optical and USB and actually see if there is any difference.

When I had a DAC with an optical input, I found that it got me slightly better sound than USB when I connected it to the only other optical-equipped component in my system, a Sony CD player..

USB (though iFI Silencer and ViaBlue) sounds much better on mine. I think.

I would invest in a JCAT USB card ($495), though it’s probably more than you want to spend. Alternative, the Matrix Element H USB card ($329) or the SOTM tX-USBexp USB 3.0 card ($350) might be options. That being said, it’s hard to say whether the motherboard USB output would be better or worse than the motherboard optical output. You would just have to test to see.

If you are using an AMD processor, then look into a Pink Faun S/PDIF card ($360). That will likely be better than a USB card, since you are not looking for DSD.

I am using a AMD board, those are some pricey cards not looking to spend that much money.