soundcard or usb device with xlr out

hey everyone.. i'm looking for either a soundcard or a usb device that has balanced xlr outs to my preamp. This is pretty much all i'm looking for but i guess it would be nice to record my guitar as well. so far, i know of the lynx soundcards that have xlr outs and i read about the apogee mini-dac in a previous thread.
http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/prod_minidac.html
it seems like you could use the mini-dac as a preamp because it has analog volume control-and you could have the xlr's go directly to an amp. does that make sense? and if so, does anyone know of any devices like this that are remote-controlled? also, regarding the mini-dac, could i plug in my dvd player via spdif or optical cable and have control of the volume if the analog outs went directly to my amp? wouldn't this just be a small preamp? thanks for the input.