Simple sound card question

Computer Audio Asylum

Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

My apologies if this is a common question... I've had a rough day today, I'm tired as hell, and I can't think of the right phrasing to put into the search engine...
I'm planning on going the PC audio route... I hadn't thought of sinking much money into it or using it as a "real" audio source for a long time but have recently found that you can pass the signal into a DAC just like any other transport. Naturally, I'm pretty excited about this... I have many, many, many discs on my computer and with VST plugins, foobar, et cetera, the possibilities are endless if I can get a high-end PC audio setup working. I've found 200+kbps VBR MP3s to be roughly equal to CD quality; in an ABX test you can definitely hear the difference but I'll gladly take a small hit in quality if it means a much greater quantity. There was a period when I was using FLAC exclusively but eventually encoded it all to MP3 (RazorLame in true stereo, using the best settings) because I decided that the file size wasn't worth the level of improvement, and I'm perfectly happy with the sound. So I'm not super-anal audiophile about all of this; I just want it to sound as good as possible.
My problem is this... my computer obviously doesn't have an S/PDIF or TOSLINK jack on the back. All I've got are a pair of USBs (2.0)... I have a four-way hub though, so the number isn't an issue. What I plan to do is
PC -> (USB cable) -> external sound card -> (S/PDIF cable) -> DAC -> (RCA cables) -> preamp.
It's the sound card that's to be the bridge between USB output and S/PDIF output. Now here is my question: since I'm going to be using the sound card as a completely passive device (signal comes in, signal goes out unprocessed), does it make a shred of difference whether I buy a $50 one or a $250 one, as I wouldn't be using the card's internal DAC and whatever bells and whistles it might have? For example, if a cheap card is electrically noisy, would that be passed on into the digital data stream?
If the answer is no, that's a great relief... more cash for the DAC fund. But if there is a difference in using different cards as passive converters, I'd like to know why. Just out of curiosity 'n' all.

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Topic - Simple sound card question - Mark Tinordi 18:26:58 10/20/06 (3)

or, you could use a Sonos or Slimdevice - MoodyDragon 22:24:51 10/22/06 (0)

Re: Simple sound card question - bobp 18:54:16 10/20/06 (1)

Thanks a million -- just ordered one (nt) - Mark Tinordi 19:32:39 10/20/06 (0)

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