[Hachiroku]

Hello,
 
 
I know I've already asked for some advice in a previous post, but I think I've narrowed down the list to a few choices. To sum it up, which one would you go for and why ? Would it be possible to judge it strictly off the amp/dac capabilities, excluding phones? Some factual data, personal experiences and such would be invaluable !
I've seen them listed around the same price in EU (with HP-A4 being only slightly cheaper) and find it really hard to decide. I haven't found many reviews about the Element, and the HP-A4 seems to be well appreciated by expert reviewers. If it's really important, I'm planning to get a pair of 600 Ohm headphones. 
 
Oh and there's one more thing which I didn't understand, are S/PDIF and Digital ports that important ? From most of what I've found over it on the forums, people mostly say you should primarily use USB anyway. I'm asking because I'm afraid of my motherboard having unsuited USB ports for the setup (yeah, it's an asus series- maximus vii hero z97), if that's the only connection available.
 
 
Thank you !

 

[Hachiroku]

Bumping once, though I should give it 24hrs first, but I'm trying to catch some deals, hope it's understandable !

 

[Hachiroku]

One last bump.

 

[SeaWo|f]

I cant comment on the sound of any of these items as I have not head any of them, but as to the importance of having an optical. It just depends on your setup and future plans. If you want to hook something up other than a computer to the dac its really nice to have other input options, but for music usb is probably best as you dont have the music going through the sound card risking it coloring it on its way to the optical. If your usb is not clean there are a number of options out there for that since you mentioned schiit products you could get a wyrd from them.

 

[Hachiroku]

Thank you very much for clearing it out, it was really confusing as I've read so many split arguments over those, things like some saying TOSLINK can make your amp sound better on some setups, others say it's a crap connection etc. I think that will be another plus on Schiit's side !