Something I've wondered, but haven't found an
answer for: can any of the
usb audio devices with s/pdif io act as standalone converters? i.e.
pass their analog ins through their ADC and directly out s/pdif without
going through the usb bus to the host and back?
-Eric Rz.
It's certainly possible:
I have a USB MIDI Keyboard/Synth (Novation X-Station) with S/PDIF out
(no digital input, though) and it can take two analog inputs and
output them through S/PDIF (with or without low-latency effects),
mainly because it's also designed to be used *without* a computer
(battery/DC adapter, etc). But this machine is *NOT* a USB sound card
(no input through USB :-(, just analog inputs), but it sounds like it
would do the job you described. Perhaps you have similar hardware
laying around that might serve this purpose?