Hi Jason,
thanks for your insightful reply and uploading the photo!
Please don´t get me wrong, but I do not fully concur with what you´re saying: Especially the USB-chipset does matter... and I am not referring to the typical audiophiles´ blablabla´ "A surely sounds better than B!". It´s just a question of compatibility since not all chipsets do support different OSs in the same manner (or the other way round). In my eyes it´s an absolute no-go to not clearly state "We´re are using chipset XY (until further notice) in our product", because then for me as a customer it´s impossible to figure out if for example my Linux-based computer network might work with it or not. If it´s still XMOS there shouldn´t be any problem, though.
And you´re right, the IDA-8 specs look second to none in its price-range, from my Nuforce experience of the past (happy owner of IA-7 V3 & P8S/ST8.5) I can also confirm you´re not building & releasing BS but all this wouldn´t matter in case I just couldn´t access certain key features (i.e. the onboard DAC of the IDA-8) due to compatibility issues.
Maybe in those Amazon times I just should order one, try it out for myself and sent it back in case it doesn´t work. But I don´t like this idea as a whole, call me conservative, sorry
Just saying, all the best,
Oliver