[DannyBuoy]

I am looking to replace my Omega Claro PCI card with the next step up in quality for my desktop rig and I can use help please.
 
My chain back from headphones is:
LCD-2 ->Violectric HPA V181->Violectric V800->Coax->Claro Omega->ASIO->JRiver Media Center->Win7 (64)
 
I am happy with all but the Claro.
 
Where can I go from here? I see people talk about Asus Xonar and other cards, but I am not sure if I would be better off with USB->Spdif or other USB devices.
 
I do not care to replace my Dac, Amp, or Headphones but there must be something I can do to get better quality sound from my digital music collection (in comparison my turntable when connected to my V181 amp sounds just brillant).
 
What is the next level of performance and quality (clocking, isolation, noise, etc.) from here?
 
Thanks...

 

[mikeaj]

I don't have a V800, nor have I followed it closely, but I think the S/PDIF implementation is pretty much indifferent to whatever you're using to feed it (even more so than most systems, where it probably doesn't matter much to begin with)?  It unpacks the data and then packs it again with a clock reference from inside the DAC.  
 
So no matter what comes in, as long as all the data gets properly received, it's all up to the clock and other components inside the V800.
 
 
Let me see if I can find what I was thinking about...
 
Found it, here, answer to question 2:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/547859/new-violectric-amps-from-lake-people-coming-info-from-ceo-fried-riem