Subj : High quality sound cards?
To   : comp.os.linux
From : Tyler Eaves
Date : Wed Oct 27 2004 01:19 am

Hi, I'm currently considering replacing the basically decent, but rather
noisy and lo-fi Soundblaster Live in my main desktop machine, an Athlon
running Debian Unstable, with kernel 2.6.9, using alsa. Card in question
will be mainly used for playing audio files, but I do mess around with a
little home recording from time to time. 

Basically my ideal specs are:

Price: $100 or under. Maybe as high as $150 if it really buys extra
performance

Sampling Rate: Up to 96Khz. 192Khz would be nice, but doubt I'll find it
in this price range.

Bitdepth: 24bit

Outputs: RCA outputs highly desirable, as right now I'm using an 1/8th"
miniplug to RCA adaptor into my stereo. Digital outputs perhaps nice, but
not a big factor

Inputs: A line level XLR input would be a kinda nice, but I really don't
do much recording. Again, at the price level, not really expected.

Drivers: Supported by ALSA

Stuff like surround sound isn't a big deal at all, as i'm going into a
"plain" two channel system. Basically, to sum up, I want the best
possible[1] playback quality, with a bare minimum of noise and distortion.
From what looking around I've done, the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 looks like
it'd do the job, but the reviews are rather mixed. They're either really
good, or really bad, so it sounds like these cards might have some
longevity problems. 

Any feedback most welcome!


[1] - With in reason of course, I'm not running into a $10k audiophile rig
or anything...

.