Usb or Optical

Maybe I'll try both I'll just buy two cables pop on my headphones and see if I can hear any noticeable difference.

Ha Ha

Thank you for your reply I'm going to try optical and USB and actually see if there is any difference.

What about egva sound card it's better than the Asus.

I am using a AMD board, those are some pricey cards not looking to spend that much money.

Maybe I'll look into those other sound cards I had the EVGA before and it sounds really good but I think my smsl d300 is going to smoke that EVGA sound card.

In fact I think the smsl d300 is going to be any sound card you can put in your computer.

Weird thing is I got my smsl d300 hooked up through USB and I'm playing Amazon music I can't get above 24/48 when I check on the song I'm playing it does 24/96 but it says my device is only capable of 2448 that ain't right can't figure out what's going on even when I go somewhere to play a higher rate flac file the screen on the DAC never goes above 48.

Well I'm using the USB on my computer not the optical so that shouldn't be a limiting factor what's coming out of the computer right it's just straight out of the computer bypassing the dac on the motherboard.

Going to try to figure it out I'm going to try opticals if there's any difference .

Well i bought a optical cable and ran it thru motherboad sound to my desktop dac and i can say for sureeee usb bypassing motherboard dac sounds much better.

I have amazon hd music, there are files on the 16/44 and there are 24/192 so it varies from song to song.  I have a strong internet connection, a fast computer, and a dac that does dsd, 24/192 in its sleep and higher.  Im running usb out of computer into back of dac and i cant get over 24/44, amazon keeps say my device only show thats its max ? whats going on any ideas ?

No

Hey Auxinput you nailed it  awesome thank you that fixed the problem, now on the d300 its showing whats currently playing 24/192 etc.

Ok i will check that, went on amazon hd and in settings and its set to ultra hd so thats no the problem.

Let me correct that last statement.  Its showing 24/192 no matter whats playing on the dac screen, so if im playing a 24/96 the screen says 24/192 always, thats strange .  When i click on the song on amazon hd it now says device able to play 192, so at least im getting hi res.

I do appreciate all of the input I just spent $400 on a brand new DAC I'm not dumping another $400 into a USB card to go into my computer that's not going to happen.  I'm running at USB right n. I don't understand why I need another special card just to run sound out of my computer into a DAC anyways I appreciate everybody's input and it probably would make a difference but I'm not spending $400 on a card.

Wow quite a debate going on here.  I know my Dac will do 24/192 from optical, so above poster is wrong.  You do need USB to get dsd out of the Dac.  Dsd has never really taken off and probally never will so im not worried about it really.

I built my computer myself and did have a Evga soundcard in it and it sounded pretty good.  I thought going to a desktop Dac would improve sound quality and features.  I took a chance on the SMSL D300 cause it has a completly different Dac chip.  I dont like ESS dac sound, METALIC comes to mind, i do like Bur Brown but the only only company who uses one is IFI.  Anyways this Dac sounds so so clean and analog sounding, great depth, good buy.

I had no idea i could by another card and put in my computer and run the usb out of that for optimal sound, how much better will it sound with this usb card ? im guessing not $400 worth.

Im interested in the Pink Faun Card, how money we talking ?. If im going to notice it and its not to much money im game.

Well did some searching and its not cheap and seems like not a common card you could find on ebay used.  So are we talking like ohhhhh yeah i can really hear the difference ?