Hi,

I'm a home user running a 2.1 setup - 2 Genelec 8330 monitors and a Genelec 7350 subwoofer.
I've just got a taste of studio grade equipment and I'm loving it, this sounds better than anything I've tried and the monitor calibration works wonders.
I want to extend my setup to include a better audio interface and after reading for a few days it's obvious that i need a bit of help :-)

I'm getting 2.0 audio out of my Windows PC via the OPTICAL SPDIF OUT from the motherboar sound card.
OPTICAL SPDIF gets transformed to digital AES/EBU via a HOSA ODL312 and digital signal is sent to the Genelecs that perform bass management themselves.
I used to run a Lindy OPTICAL SPDIF SWITCH before the HOSA ODL312 to allow to easily switch OPTICAL SPIFS inputs to the Genelecs, but fearing that it might degrade the signal or introduce jitter I've removed it and (placebo?) things seem to sound a bit better. Need to test that further.
Software on the PC handles all downmixing required (5.1 or 7.1 tracks to 2.0 with LFE channel mixed in). I've had good results with Media Player Home Cinema and now I'm looking into JRiver. Getting the LFE channel to be downmixed in the 2.0 mix was actually quite a challange - most of the playback software will just drop the LFE channel no questions asked (to my dispair .
I'm using this for music/games/movies.

I would like to power the Genelecs directly via AES/EBU and prepare for extending the setup with a new 5.1 setup.
I'm hoping that moving to something that can output AES/EBU directly might improve the quality of the digital signal; for example I've seen PCI-Express cards that output AES/EBU directly and thus avoid the onboard sound card and optical to AES conversion. Not sure what impact clocks and jitter and format transformation can have on what I'm hearing now but i'm thinking that things should get better fed directly from PCIE with no format conversion along the way. I've seen there are also USB solutions but from what I'm reading PCI-E provides the best performance?
I plan to get a 5.1 setup and ideally the same PC that powers the 2.1 setup would also be able to power the 2.1 setup or 5.1 setup with some easy way to switch between the two.

I've seen to narrow things down to the RME HDSPe AES - 16 output channels of AES/EBU, but this is quite expensive for a home user :-) wanted to make sure i'm looking in the right direction

My question is:
- is this the right option for me?
- is there potential to improve sound quality?
- can this interface power two setups (2.1 and 5.1) in the same time with some easy way to switch between them?
- if i want secondary sources that output TOSLINK digital to the monitors, can i connect them to the PCIE interface AES/EBU inputs (after transformation) and route them trough the mixing software to the genelecs? this would allow for some "input switching" to allow other sources that just the main PC source
- do clocks play a role in this setup (feeding monitors via AES/EBU)? do i need some sort of clocking functionality?
- is sample rate conversion something that would be useful?

Thanks!!!