Silverstone EB01-B USB digital to analog converter,Black

Pros: Low price, plug and play, Good sound, small size, great looks, USB bus powered

Cons: doesn't do 24/96 and higher bit streams, USB bus powered, goofy hidden power and lock lights, supplied USB cable too short, GOOD but not GREAT sound quality

Other Thoughts: A no brainer at less than $100 shipped to your door to get a USB dac that sounds this good. Forget those $100 sound cards with 5.1 out. Probably a niche product for your first foray into upgraded computer sound. If you play low bit rate MP3's and downloads from iTunes, this product is not for you, just listen to the sound card in your Dell. If you use plastic computer speakers with the volume control knob on the front, not only is this little black box not for you, it won't work. You have to feed the output of the EB01 to a stereo receiver/amp or headphone amp. You won't confuse the EB01 with an $8000 audiophile dac but you will have to spend 3 to 4 times more $ to get better sound. Only gripe/wish is that for the money, if they could have included digital out (SPDIF via rca, forget toslink)so you could use the EB01 as a converter/transport to connect to an outboard dac if you so desired.

Pros: External, USB, very good sound quality, easy install, good price

Cons: Maybe that it is only 2-channel, but that is all I needed for my 2.1 system.

Other Thoughts: I ripped all my CDs (>450) to WMA Lossless to feed my SoundBridge at my HT system. Then I decided all this music needed to be played on my 2-channel system, next to my PC in my den, and using Windows Media Player.
I first bought an M-Audio Revolution 5.1 (Internal) but it was very noisy - popping and clicking whenever the PC read or wrote to the hard drives.
So after much research I found and bought the EB01 - very quiet, great sound quality (nice Burr-Brown DAC), and very easy install. I could not be happier.

Pros: Excellent sound quality
Low price for what it does
Really helps a good stereo sound system shine (especially headphones)
Plug and play in WinXP
Sleek design

Cons: Low amplification depending on hardware (ie: not for unamplified speakers- best for headphones or powered/amplified stereo speakers)
Runs off USB power

Other Thoughts: I was disappointed at the sound quality I was getting out of my sound card (I recently upgraded from a SB PCI512 to an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum). I hooked this baby up and without any tweaking noticed an immediate difference in sound quality and clarity. I decided to buy this after reading internal sound cards are prone to sound degradation due to noise/interference from PC internals. This unit is supposed to be better than many other external consumer-priced cards because it also reduces an issue called jitter that results from carrying a signal over USB. One thing to note: This unit is more for musical/stereo use than anything else. One of its greatest strengths is its native use of CD audio format (16 bit, 44.1khz Stereo)- this means it doesn’t have to resample anything already in that format, one reason for its superior sound quality to Creative products.

Love music? Get this baby, install Foobar2000, and get a good pair of $100+ headphones (mine are Sennheiser HD 555).