Hallo, David F. Place hat gesagt: // David F. Place wrote:
I hesitated to post this question, because it seems like such an
obvious FAQ. I couldn't find the answer by searching around.My linux workstation has a crappy, noisy sound card. I want to
replace it with a higher quality device. Preferably outside the box
to avoid interference. I notice that several manufacturers offer
solutions, Creative, M-Audio, etc. Is any preferred by Pders?
Please discuss.
There is no need to go external with a workstation: Modern semi-pro level soundcards generally don't pick up noise through interference anymore. So I would definitely recommend a PCI card, if you can use that. E.g. the M-Audio Delta cards are nice, not too expensive and pretty much standard in many machines. Terratec etc. also make cards with the ICE chipsets onboard, they will work as well.
But if you insist on USB: I would avoid M-Audio USB cards: It's too risky to get one that doesn't work - like the old Quattro, though that is discontinued thankfully.
You have to be careful with cards that only support 24Bit audio, like the Tapco Link.USB or the Alesis IO2. They will work with Jack, but not with Pd over ALSA. Also the Lexicon cards give problems according to reports on the Linux lists.
Other than that you can probably get any card. Check the USB device list on www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/
Some recommendation would be a card by Edirol or the Terratec Phase 26 (which unfortunatly lacks balanced outs, but otherwise is good and inexpensive. I use one on my laptop.)
Ciao
Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org_ __goto10.org__