I postet this earlier at the AudioAssylum and thougt it might prevent someone from bying an expensive soundcard.

Inspired by Presto, I was tempted to try digital crossover via PC and
searched for a suitable soudcard.
I googeled for reviews and stumbled on a few very encouraging reviews on the fairly new Bluegears b-inspirer.
After reading the specs I was amazed that it used the highly regarded
AKM AK4396 on all 4 channel pairs. I took the plunge and ordered a Club3D Theatron which is identic to the bluegears and is sold here in Germany for 60 Euro.
I did not bother to run the card unmodified for more than a few hours.
I did a first order passive out for the Dac bypassing all the aktive circuitry. I used the passive out mod of the Behringer DCX as described by sendler. Being pin compatible with the AK4394/4395 I cold do this without problems on the AK4396.
Wow, let me tell you this is the best sound from any source I ever had.
My gear so far:
1.Pioneer stable platter highly tweeked and with tube output stage.
2.DDDac with quality parts
3.DIY Usb dac with PCM2707 and TDA1543 (I never got it working again in self powered mode after a German Windows update to SP2)
4. Oppo 971 tweaked with Rubycon ZL all over and a custom active stage with THS4032 opamps.
Out of this buch the Oppo wins by a margin in terms of detail, soudstage, imageing and naturalness.

The soundcard has every positive aspect of the Oppo, plus an even more detailed sound. No matter how many instruments are involved in the cenario they are clearly defined.
What I almost forgot is the very controlled and wheighty bass. That
together with the dynamics was totally surprising to me because this is something that is usually lacking in a passive out configuration.
I can`t wait to finish modding the other 6 channels and hock up my 4 way horn system.

Cheers,
Klaus