i have a similar setup with a consumer level tube dac (highly recommended with a pair of studio monitors, btw). 1. i used all the usb ports on my workstation a

i have a similar setup with a consumer level tube dac (highly recommended with a pair of studio monitors, btw). 1. i used all the usb ports on my workstation and don't want a hub 2. i use the usb and line-in analog inputs on my dac for portable devices, the optical one is permanently connected to my workstation. 3. optical feels 'native' in the operating system, it's just another output on the soundcard and doesn't require anything other than native drivers. this is probably wrong, but whatever.