Florin Andrei wrote:
> 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.
Fortunately for my wallet I wouldn't call myself an audiophile.
My only two problems with Creative are the lack of optical SPDIF
and that I've never liked their drivers (although that's irrelevant
on Linux).
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)?
Optical S/PDIF. I've also got a NetMD minidisc player that I
rarely use these days because of the hassle of using windows
software to put music on it, so having SPDIF would give it a
new lease of life.
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
Thanks very much.
--
imalone
