On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 21:30 +0000, Ian Malone wrote: > Sound quality is more important to me than gaming but I > suspect, at my (sub 50UKP) end of the market, I don't get > so much choice. True, unfortunately. The low-end audiophile quality brand that works with Linux is M-Audio, but you won't find an M-Audio card under $50, not first hand anyway. http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.list&ID=pciinterfaces But the not-too-old Creative cards are getting good enough even for audiophile ears. Don't dismiss them easily. > HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 Gold > Voyetra Turtle Beach Catalina 7.1 > Terratec Aureon 5.1 Fun 6Ch Sound Card (although 'fun' in > the title is a little suspicious) Not familiar with these. > Most of the lower priced Creative cards are out of the > running by needing an add-on for digital IO (which is > seemingly impossible to get). By "digital" you mean optical or copper (SPDIF)? I know that even low-end Creative cards have at least a copper digital connector on-board, but I'm not sure if they're both input and output (output for sure, but I don't know about input). > Any suggestions (or pointers > to places that have reviews that are more substantial than > lists of features) appreciated. Ask on LAU: http://www.linuxdj.com/audio/lad/subscribelau.php -- Florin Andrei http://florin.myip.org/
