On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 4:48 PM, tim vets <timvets@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey,
on ubuntu, I have good experience with:
-echo layla 3g (8in8out,2preamps, phantom...)
-m-audio delta 1010LT
-m-audio delta 44
-rme hammerfall dsp + multiface, both PCI and PCMCIA (note: the output jack sockets are too close to each other, which can give you a hard time connecting more than 2 cables with 'sturdy' jacks.)

all those worked pretty much out of the box

bad experience with:
-firewire soundcard using 'freebob' driver
(I think the brand was motu, or presonus, or focusrite, one of those, I don't remember exactly...but, while it was officially supposed to work (checked alsa soundcard matrix) it didn't...)

I haven't checked recently, but I still have the impression that firewire soundcards are poorly supported on linux...

2 cents regarding...
- Firewire: the FFADO driver which works with Jack is under active development so more cards start working - not with ALSA or PulseAudio however. They *are* sensitive to different firewire chipsets and Texas Instruments is told to be the best for them. Anyway i found the firewire connection pretty fragile because of the physical design of the firewire connectors and because if the connection gets interrupted for a fraction of a second it will fail.
- MOTU: one of the best sounding cards in my experience, just don't buy one because they are extremely unreliable and their customer service is plain crap.

Get an RME if you have any chance!

Andras