Dynobot,

Now I've had a chance to read more of the information on your excellent website I'd say it was well worth a visit for anyone interested in computer audio.

One thing that really struck me was how you had discovered by accident that cutting the 5volt power connection on a USB cable gave such good results that you sold both your ADuM isolator and AUDIO-GD USB to Coax converter. It's an idea that SOTM incoporated into their very expensive tX-USB: Low noise USB audio PCI card with switchable BUS power. Of course this may not work on a USB DAC that needs the 5volt connection, but must be worth a try on a cheap USB cable.

To stray off topic a little further, in your comparison of Windows v. Mac etc. you express a perference for the Squeezebox Touch, but only if the Squeezebox server software riuns on a separate machine. But unless I missed it you don't say which DAC etc you were listening to, or perhps this choice was independent of the rest of your audio chain..

Although Im a dedicated Linux user I still have not built a separate "audio computer", yet I lean towards an Atom powered device or using an embedded sytesm like one of the ALIX m/boards combined with VoaygeMPD linux. Talking of which have you ever seen this website?

http://kubotayo.web.fc2.com/voyagempd.html

It includes some patches for MPD itself to make further use of real time capabilities. I've made no use of these myslef yet so can't say if they are effective. But they are accompanied by a detailed description.

One last question, I wonder if you had ever tried the switch from ALSA to OSS4? Sadly, my DAC's USB connection does not function although recognised in OSS4 , but my Envy24HT card works OK.