[Matoriv]

Pardon my ignorance.

I have a styleaudio DAC which I have been using for years on my computer through USB.

I recently realized that it has an optical cable input + my computer has optical output so I was wondering if I went through optical cable, do I still need to power it via USB?

And wondering if this applies to newer DAC like the topping E30?

If I still need to provide power via USB, what would be the point/benefit of going through optical?

 

[CoryGillmore]

It will still need USB power if used through optical. The benefits of going through optical is to not use your computers potentially noisy USB bus. For instance, if you were experiencing noise from a ground loop in your signal chain, switching to optical source would likely rid you of this problem. Or if you were experiencing noise in your setup in general, like from a powerful graphics card, switching to optical would solve this issue. Also using optical doesn't require the use of drivers, it's just plug an play. The only downside, if you could call it that, is that optical is limited to 24/192. So no DSD etc.

 

[Matoriv]

It will still need USB power if used through optical. The benefits of going through optical is to not use your computers potentially noisy USB bus. For instance, if you were experiencing noise from a ground loop in your signal chain, switching to optical source would likely rid you of this problem. Or if you were experiencing noise in your setup in general, like from a powerful graphics card, switching to optical would solve this issue. Also using optical doesn't require the use of drivers, it's just plug an play. The only downside, if you could call it that, is that optical is limited to 24/192. So no DSD etc.

Thanks and the DAC would be “smart” enough to go through optical or I need to select from the sound source options?

 

[Roseval]

Maybe stating the obvious but if the DAC doesn’t have its own PSU, it is USB powered.
If it is, the only way to use it is to connect it to a USB port.
Might be a charger instead of a PC as well as long as it supplies 5V DC

If there is a noise problem (most well designed audio gear don’t have it) it won’t help to use Toslink as the pollution might as well come over the power lines.
Toslink is nice to have as a lot of audio gear still have it. You can use it to connect a CD player, a TV, etc as mostolder audio gear don’t support USB audio.

TosLink is limited to 24 bit / 96 kHz PCM audio but modern hardware can perform better.
Anyway, a Toslink cable won’t break the bank, so give it a shot.
On your PC you have to choose which audio output to use, Toslink or USB