Yes the 541 is on octal buffer. I made a little perfboard circuit for the chip that floats (physically) above the main S/PDIF board. I now get uninterupted output as long as I don't put any pressure on the perfboard. If I try
to adjust the position of the board while in operation, I sometimes momentarily lose the output. Of course this could be from anything. Perhaps with a proper ground plane things will behave better. This board has started to get very ugly (see attachment). I guess I will just have to bite the bullet and build a prototype SMT board with the buffer on board.

Stu