USB sound card

[mk01]

this will work and makes sense for any sound / music but played from xbmc.

I tested 8ch USB audio cards with pulse audio installed. problem is XBMC. if you mean the loop (RPI audio jack out -> HF audio card -> consolidated output) then yes it makes sense not to switch all cabling setup depending what is audio source but personally I think the best option is to route it via HDMI.

and for price of that sound card you get solid DTS/AC3/5.1 AVR from Yamaha or Denon or whatever (including of course 5.1 amplifier and providing DA/ADs at 192khz / 6 or 8 channels was well.

Personally i still need the USB audio for reading vinyl time codes, so still using it, but normally was using digital mixer as sound card (over USB) and lately realized that even this useless in the setup. it all ends up at Amplifier anyway.

in your case if you don't plan to have the speakers mobile, skip even the soundcard, and use TV as D/A.

(or really rethink the concept with AVR for SB Audio card and Creative speakers for some entry level floor standers. You get 10x more flexible solution with this. Of course you can ask whether the AVR can be used as _USB_ sound card to pc, Yamaha not, but this is not technical issue (maybe Denon is doing it) and anyhow most modern notebooks/pc/mac have HDMI output - or HDMI ready output like Thunderbold). And with the AVRs it is more than standard now AirPlay, uPNP, …