Ok so this is interesting. My v-link that I had been using just up and died on me. So for the time being, I just plugged the dac directly into the usb port and to my surprise, in some ways it actually sounds better. Overall the sound is smaller and less dynamic and the imaging feels smaller BUT the voices are smoother and better separated from the music which sort of falls back into the background. Overall I would say the sound is less congested. Now I was poking around behind my tower today and noticed I actually have a s/pdif out on my motherboard. I know its not ideal but for fun I plugged into it. The difference between the s/pdif and usb are very subtle. Audibly they sound almost identical. The most noticeable difference I would say is the pacing. The s/pdif sounds a bit quicker? I think? As I said, its subtle. The upside is I can play my high res files again.
So here is my question, and this is primarily directed towards Steve. I noticed the synchro-mesh on your site. So re-clocking the digital signal from the s/pif vs a usb converter, would there be an advantage to one over the other?