That little Apogee would look a bit less flamboyant if you would only buy the poor thing some sensible shoes. If you want Apogee and design elegance at once, it isn't hard to find, it's the Duet.
For my part, I nominate this:
Put in USB and it puts out your choice of either of the 2 coax, optical or AES/EBU. It re-clocks. It keeps the digital and analog paths separate, it seems to add nothing to the music - no noise, no warmth, nothing - which is a good thing in my view. It even has a simple 16-bit Burr-Brown DAC chip in it - an afterthought evidenced by the fact that there are no RCA outs. But put that little chip in this well-designed circuit and it sounds really good, even coming out of the mini phono on the front (a headphone jack, but there's no headphone amp, no volume control, all line level controlled from the PC). I'm not sure I need a better DAC, but I want one. The aforementioned Duet, to be exact. As Joni Mitchell said, I'm like a black crow, sweeping down on every shiny thing.
$140. Those crazy Chinese.
Tim