Help a switcher

[plutnicki]

I've got a friend of mine who's a potential switcher, but one thing he wants to do is connect a future Mac into his HT system with digital audio out. He's considering an iMac right now.

Are there any firewire/USB interfaces that will do digital audio out?

Thanks,

[DrGonzo]

Originally posted by plutnicki
I've got a friend of mine who's a potential switcher, but one thing he wants to do is connect a future Mac into his HT system with digital audio out. He's considering an iMac right now.

Are there any firewire/USB interfaces that will do digital audio out?

Thanks,

Maybe something like this?
http://www.digitraxx.com/hwscsonica.html

Or something like this, though i don't know if it'll work for what you want/
http://floridamusicco.com/ua1d.htm

Some of them (not those listed here) are for pc only which kinda sucks.

Here's another one or two, though these are more expensive...
http://www.esi-pro.com/viewProduct.php?pid=12&page=1

http://www.esi-pro.com/viewProduct.php?pid=10&page=1

Anything beyond these and you really start to get into more professional audio tools that will have far more options than you need, not to mention the price.

[idea_hamster]

For only a bit more than a middle-of-the road iMac, he could get a 1.6 GHz G5 that has built-in S/PDIF optical audio I/O (assuming that he uses whatever display he's using now).

Is that a possibility?

[applemacdude]

Remember that you have to add a monitor. But the G5 is much faster. The imacs aredue for an update but remember that most likely that the imac wont have a g5. But the imac does look so cool