I'd like to avoid buying another audio card, but it is in the back of my mind and I'll do it if necessary. Upsampling makes complete sense to me, since I suspect a lot of PC sources aren't 44.1kHz (many games, for example, don't need 44.1kHz sampling or even 16-bit quantization).
I'm running FreeBSD, so I suspect it'll all boil down to whether or not the OSS drivers work correctly with S/PDIF output on the VT1616. They work on my office desktop machine (the dual Xeon 2.8), but that's a different beast altogether (different on-board audio) and I'm using a Flying Cow for D/A there since I needed balanced analog outs to interface with my other gear (all balanced runs to avoid induced noise from all the computer and related gear in my office).
If I have to use a PCI card, I'm not sure what I'll do. I don't think OSS supports S/PDIF on the Envy24 chip, so the m-audio cards probably aren't an option (REvolution 7.1 would be nice since it's inexpensive, but if the S/PDIF output won't work on FreeBSD...). I'd rather not go as far as an Audigy2 Platinum eX, since I'd like to avoid the space consumption of an external D/A box and the like. Unfortunately OSS only supports S/PDIF on the external boxes for Creative cards, so that's what I'd probably have to use. Hopefully OSS will drive the S/PDIF on the motherboard so I won't have to worry about it.
It looks like it'll be at least 3 weeks 'til I get the Hush box. Apparently they were taking pre-orders for a while, my confirmation says the build time is expected to be 2 weeks out and it'll take 5 days to ship to the U.S.
