Don't get me wrong on the Sonic; it's a damned good sound for 30$; but it isn't the giant killer they originally said it was in my opinion, and the faults are not those you can overlook.
Sort of like trying to voice loudspeakers using a portable CD player.
I like the class A SS amp that Nelson Pass wrote about in this months AE.
It sounds similar to the old threshold class A amps from the 70's. Cheap to build also.

So; now that you have a better and faster computor what will you be doing musically; a better soundcard like the Creative hot rod models?