Why USB to SPDIF and not optical?

I am a little concerned about the statement that it is compatible with native Windows drivers. Do you know how the Link product interacts with XP's audio subsystem? The literature says it accepts 24/96 but I think parts of the XP subsystem probably needs to be bypassed to get 24/96 cleanly through the OS. So does it have drivers that bypass KMixer and the like and will any software product (iTunes for me) work with it directly or do you need special drives (like ASIO) to use it? Any information would be useful.

In addition, XP generally upscales 44.1 files to 48 unless special drives are installed. Does the 24/96 link help with that problem?

Mmarvin19 - The JRiver and ASIO configuration is one I am intertested in but have not tried yet. Can you tell if you get 44.1 MHz out of both the Belkin and the Behringer? And do both pass higher frequency without re-sampling? I check this by hooking it up to my HT receiver which reports the input signal sampling frequency. Thanks.

Steve - Let me re-phrase - "XP generally upscales 44.1 files to 48 unless special software is installed to bypasses the XP upscaling". You are correct that is not only a driver issue. Unfortunately the simple solution of unmapping the device often disables the device so it is not a general solution - at least for me The specific issue I was addressing is whether the Bel Canto managed to bypass this upconversion. If there is no additional software other than the native drives, I would suspect that the upconversion still happens. Do you concur? Does your converter get 44.1 out of iTunes? As I understand it, neither KS or ASIO is available for iTunes. If that is incorrect I would love to know a general process for bypassing the upconversion when using iTunes. I like the iTunes interface, but am frustrated by the uponversion. Any insight would be appreciated.

Correction - not mapping through the device does not disable my devices, it just does not seem to stop the upsampling. The "do not use audio functions" option is the one that disables the devices. Sorry - I got the 2 options mixed up.

I just installed J River Media Center 13 last night and am still getting 48 MHz output on XP. I installed ASIO4ALL and upconversion still happens. I still need to do some experimenting to be sure I have everything set up correctly. Do you get 16/44.1 out of J River? If I read your comment correctly Vista converts 16/44.1 to 24/44.1, so I would not call that bit-perfect. Is your software adding the bits or is Vista? The purist in me would still like to get the original 16/44.1 out to my DAC without the any changes happening in the PC. I sometimes feel like I am losing the battle with this. Might try foobar next, but I am not sure I can live with the interface. Thanks for your help.

Mmarvin19 - I would rather have my DAC (Musical Fidelity) do the upscaling rather than some unknown software buried in the PC. So I am looking for a simple USB to optical or coax converter that will bypass the XP upscaling. The 44.1 to 48 upscaling may not have much effect on the final sound, but I would still prefer to be able to control it. I would think you would also prefer 44.1 for files ripped from CD for your NOS DAC. Part of the idea of a NOS DAC is to not do any upscaling. Can you tell if your Behringer is putting out 44.1? I assume with ASIO it probably is. I have tried a couple of devices today with J River Media Center and ASIO4ALL but they do not work with ASIO4ALL. So I am still looking for new options. I am very happy with what I am currently getting, but want to see if I can get it to another level.

Steve - I agree in principle. The comparison here is between the real time up sampling from 44.1 to 48 done by XP versus the up sampling done by my DAC. I would prefer to not use the XP upsampling because I do not think it adds anything to the chain and depending on how it is done may degrade the sound - although probably only slightly. Once I can bypass the upsampling I can try it both ways and see if I can hear any difference.