CheepShot
New Head-Fier
I bought a decent external DAC that uses USB or optical and could quickly switch between the two. There were noticeable differences with the most noticeable being the smaller soundstage with USB. With my motherboard the SPDIF only works if I have the builtin soundcard turned on in the bios. As per someones suggestion on this forum I installed a PCIE USB adaptor and DAC has it exclusively. After that, both SPDIF and the external DAC sound much closer to each other. The external DAC is far better of course with more detail and separation.