i grew tired of waiting for a forum reply so i hunted down some RMAA results of the emu 0404 usb box.
at first look the emu 0404 looked like a fantastic design to use with my laptop to go around town optimizing peoples radios.
but then i seen that the 0404 has a frequency response that doesnt make it down to 10hz.. that was my first reason to seek a miracle from the device.
then i found these RMAA results of the product and i must admit that i am suprised at how low the specs are.
this website has the emu 0404 and two other products from m-audio (one USB and one firewire)
http://www.amb.org/rmaa/
apparantly i would be better off using a PCI soundcard in a portable pc case.
although i have no time / money to build a cute computer with a pc case that has a handle on the top.
anyways.. i am with you, in that i would like to see some of these external DAC boxes run through the benchmark rather than using somebody ELSES hearing.