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I am searching for a USB (A or C male) to TOSLINK Adapter (female) in order to keep my audio signal digital as long as possible.

What is important that I do not need to install specific drivers (this is especially important for Linux).

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Alternatively it could be coaxial S/PDIF instead of TOSLINK.

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  • I have an old USB 1.1 stick with combo analog and optical out (Mini-TOSLINK) that I bought for $15 about 15 years ago, and it Just Works with the regular USB Audio drivers. Generic brands are more likely to use the common baseline, which it sounds like you are looking for.
    – chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-
    May 29, 2020 at 21:43

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I've had good luck with MiniDSP products for this. For example:

https://www.minidsp.com/products/usb-audio-interface/mchstreamer

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You will find what you are looking for listed as a USB DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) even though technically, toslink is not analog and you may not need the DAC functionality for your purpose.

There is a long list on amazon. This one claims to be Plug-and-play and need no drivers.

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  • That's the problem. DACs are a way more expensive. That's why I wanted I small USB to TOSLINK converter which just keeps the signal digital. Actually I boundle the the TOSLINK signals with splitter and route it to one high quality DAC.
    – holzkohlengrill
    Jun 3, 2020 at 13:41
  • The one I linked is $24. Even if someone makes a dedicated adapter with only toslink, I doubt it would be any cheaper.
    – Alphy13
    Jun 3, 2020 at 14:11
  • At least this one looks promising.
    – holzkohlengrill
    Jun 3, 2020 at 16:38
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I found an audio interface from Behringer - the UCA222 (for about 23 EUR - as from Jul/2020) which looked pretty promising and cheap. It has input and output RCA sockets, as well as a 3.5 mm headphone jack with a volume control wheel and of course S/PDIF via TOSLINK.


Fortunately I found a block diagram of the audio chip (CM6533) used within the UCA222. That showed me that the digital output is almost a "pass-through". I spoke with the Behringer team. They told me most of their devices are class compliant - so Linux should work too.

That's what I finally bought and it works quite smoothly. The AD/DA components are probably not the best (haven't tested them so far) but that's why I connect it via a S/PDIF switch to a high quality DAC.

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  • I tried to reproduce where I found the information about the used audio chip but either they removed it from their page or I couldn't find it anymore.
    – holzkohlengrill
    Jul 25, 2020 at 17:36

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