[ls13coco]

Hey all, I'm wondering what would be the best/cheapest way to gain the ability to connect my DACs to my PC with optical, which has a motherboard lacking optical and s/pdif.

I'm happy with usb, I'd just like the option as I'm running low on open ports and would like to also compare for any audible difference.
Cheap sound card?
Usb- optical converter?

Anything that might degrade quality I will skip, as well as if I need to spend too much I'll also just wait til I change mobo's in the future.

Thanks

 

[Slogra]

any audio controller should do the trick. If you use wasapi and the same samplerate as the source track, it will be bitperfect.

 

[Zenvota]

The cheapest spdif to usb converters for $10-20 on amazon will likely only do 16/44, which could be ok. Next up is xmos u8 boards from china off ebay, for $70 or under there are plenty that have upgraded tcxos, can power it with a decent jameco lps, a little more expensive for something like the breeze du u8 the converter will have a built in psu. Next up you start getting isolation barriers and better components, i.e. used singxer su1s or schiit eitrs