WillWeber wrote:

One update for you: Many places have the Musical Fidelity's V-link for $119.00 right now (e.g. MusicDirect). $50 less than original price; that's not inflation, it's competition. Or maybe they are coming out with a new model soon?

Just checked, Amazon has it at $99.00! At these prices I'll just get one and upgrade later when more hi-rez files are available, and this one will be relegated to the office. The next one can wait longer that way, and the prices and options will be even more favorable.

Thx for the $ update on the V-Link. Those are decent prices. I just got the latest AA catalog, and the V-Link is $190.00. Usually, their prices are competitive, but not this time, I guess.

SPIDIF is a compromised format, so I'm holding out for an economical, high-rez, D/A processor with asynchr. USB. Er ... one that sells for about the Amazon $ you quoted for V-link! Economies of scale usually trickle down ... so perhaps by the same time next year ... perhaps ;)

Here's another one ...

Got a PC, with iTunes or Foobar, and a hard-drive full of 1000s of WAV or FLAC files ... and need a v. HQ way to pipe these to a USB-equipped D/A processor (e.g., Arye, MF, Bryston, Bel canto, etc.)

SOtM of Korea has interesting gear that may come to the rescue ... one is a PCI card:

http://sotm-audio.com/sotm/products/tX-USB.htm

They also have this "all-in-one" device:

dac-200-HD: [Sorry! Google translated from Korean to English]

"dAC-200 HD for users of the junggogeup 32bit D / A converter is CD, DVD player or TV, and you are using a variety of digital sources so that devices can be connected with the AES / EBU, coaxial, optical input jack to connect to a PC equipped with USB audio class 2.0 interface has features. PC that is connected with USB audio function compliant USB audio class 2.0 of the latest standards. The Windows OS, Apple OS-X, Linux, etc. using a variety of environments that are not affected by the PC's clock using Asynchronous Transfer Mode 192KHz/24 bit PCM audio data to be input can improve the quality of the input source for the dAC-200 HD, the high performance audio clock (sCLK-2224, option products) and 32bit SRC (Sample Rate Converter) technology was applied. SCLK-two thousand two hundred twenty-four a USB audio interface for audio data input through the D / A conversion process The most important role, and very natural, but a wider range without coloration to produce dynamic sound. SRC technology did not design the highest quality DVD, TV, etc. If you apply a lot of improvement in sound quality and high performance source component is expected to be The output of the SRC data, even if the connection hayeoteul the same 32bit DAC chip and output with a wide dynamic range because it sounds more natural, will be transformed. "

Digital Audio Input:

- USB input

• USB 2.0 high speed
  USB audio class 2.0
  44.1KHz, 48KHz, 88.2KHz, 96KHz, 176.4KHz, 192KHz sampling rate
  Max 24bit PCM audio data.
  Sampling rate auto detect and display
  Asnchronous isochronous mode operation
  Bit-transparent operation
  Windows XP with SP3 (32 bit), Windows Vista with SP2 (32 bit), Windows Vista x64 with SP2 (64 bit), Windows 7 (32 bit), Windows 7 x64 (64 bit), Mac OS-X snow leopard, Linux

- AES/EBU, Coaxial, Optical input

• AES, S/PDIF data format compatible
  32KHz, 44.1KHz, 48KHz, 88.2KHz, 96KHz, 176.4KHz, 192KHz sampling rate
  Max 24bit PCM audio data
  Auto enable de-Emphasis filter for 32KHz, 44.1KHz, 48KHz sampling rate

Line output stage:

• Full balance output stage
  Stereo balance x 1 and unbalance output x1
  Passive L-C low pass filter
  Wide range frequency response : 10Hz~100KHz(-3dB)
  SNR : -100dB >
  THD+N : -100dB >

User control input::

• Power on/off
  Input select
  SRC on/off
  SRC fs select
  Mute on/off

Indicate LED:

• Power status x 1
  Input channel x 7
  Non-PCM status x 1
  SRC on/off x 1
  SRC fs status x 4
  Mute status x 1

Power circuit:

• Ultra low noise regulator circuit for all digitral and analog circuit
• Split winding dual power transformer

Component:

• AK4115VQ for digital audio interface
  AK4390EF for audio DAC
  XS1-L1 for USB interface
  OPA2228 for audio output stage
  Flat chip audio grade resistor
  PPS film chip capacitor
  SILMIC II audio grade electrolytic capacitor
  Polymer conductive capacitor
  Full size AT-Cut low jitter oscillator
  ALPS high quality long life switch