> Isn't this just a high-end
> 
>   uaudio* at uhub?
>   audio* at uaudio?
> 
> thing?

Hmm, for $169 plus shipping.

I'm not a high end hifi geek, so I'm not sure how bad the audio signal from
traditional systems nowadays is, but my Krups (bought from ebay) did cost me
slightly less, has ethernet instead of USB and runs NetBSD ;-)

It probably has unbelievable bad output quality from a HIFI point of view.
But in my age, and in an office with multiple computers running...

(If you don't know a krups: http://www.aprisoft.de/krups)

Martin