USB External Sound Card?

[Boe11]

Is anyone still using these? Do they provide an advantage in sound quality?

I'm considering buying an 11" air and thunderbolt display soon, and I'd like to use my logitech 5500s. Aside from the optical issue (it's my understanding that there is an adapter that allows you to plug it into the macbook and get surround sound) my main gripe is that the TBD has no audio ports. It kind of takes some of the magic out of the concept for me, if I have to plug in/unplug more cables to the air when I dock and undock it.

So I'm wondering if an external USB sound card that I leave plugged in might be a good solution. Does anyone have modern experience with this? I used to have one 6-7 years ago and it seemed to work alright, but I rarely see them anymore.

Ideally I'd like something that allowed me to use optical.

 

[kamuix]

I found this and it seems to have decent reviews with an optical out :

http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-Extern...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328124463&sr=1-17

I've actually tried searching for these too a while ago, but gave up as most of them required drivers only for windows (ie. the creative ones). In the end I bought a fiio amp for my headphones which sounds great. If you're ever interested, this is the unit I bought:

http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E6-Headp...2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328124683&sr=1-2

 

[Boe11]

Cool, that first option looks great. I wonder if it works with OSX.

 

[ELMpro]

found this...

Not sure if you're still looking at this card, but here's the specs:

http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/439

It does look nice, but alas...no mac support. I guess they didn't see Apple's stock north of $600.

The search continues...