I was going to buy a DAC for my Imac and the output was coaxial. Is there any difference using a usb to usb and usb to a coaxial adapter?

I'm going to be hooking my receiver up to my computer soon and I was wondering which connection would be better for 5.1? Should I use digital coaxial from Sound Blaster or HDMI from the video card?   Thanks!

I have a 2008 Macbook Pro (Penryn I believe).  I have an optical line output via the headphone jack apparently.  I now realize that this is an OPTICAL line out so I need a mini-toslink adapter with toslink cable:   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1596   Okay....but the Hifiman input is...

I have been using my new laptop (Lenovo W510) as my primary source for listening lately.  The sound quality is not quite as good as some of the Apples I have had in the past, so I thought I might try a DAC to see if it improves anything.  I need a unit that is somewhat portable.  I know the pico...

I'm search for getting my iPod to output digitally, I found only 2 docks:   Onkyo ND-S1 WADIA 170i   But in my world the perfect solution would just to have an iPod connector with a toslink digital cable, it should be possible, or am I just dreaming?

Does anyone here have the hiface Linux drivers yet? Can you send them to me?

I have a Hifiman HM-801 portable player/DAC and I would like to try to use it as external DAC. Do you have any recommendation for a good (from the point of view of sound quality) coaxial input cable for HM-801? Thanks in advance for your help.

My motherboard has both optical and coaxial outs:   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128419   I realize that USB DACs bypass the onboard sound, but if I were to get a DAC with SPDIF inputs and hook them up directly to my motherboard, my onboard sound card would be...