[Alsa-user] laptops, S/PDIF and ALSA support

[<cev...@ce...>]

I'd like to buy a new laptop with a 13" screen that supports digital 
audio output via S/PDIF or TOSlink.  

I don't want to deal with the endless hours of fiddling with a real 
time kernel and jack audio, so firewire is out until ALSA directly 
supports it.  I don't want to carry a box around to break out the 
audio from the HDMI port, it's one more thing to lose.  And I don't 
want my files down sampled to 48k x 16 bits for standard USB audio
(not to mention USB audio just doesn't sound right to my ears).

I just want to send my 96k x 24bit audio files directly to a DAC 
with the least possible fuss.  If there was an ExpressCard/34 sound
card with S/PDIF supported by ALSA, I would buy it in a second.

If you own a cheapish laptop 13 to 14 inch laptop, and have working 
S/PDIF or TOSLink output, please would you let me and the rest of 
the world know?

Christopher