[linux-audio-user] Help setting up linux for high quality music listening via JACK

[Lee Revell]

On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 14:18 -0500, Andrew Lester wrote:
> Hi, this is my first time on a mailing list, so I hope I'm doing it 
> right. I am new to Linux, coming from windows. I need a low-latency 
> sound interface with no resampling (ex: no software volume control, no 
> software EQ, etc...), just like ASIO in windows. Somebody told me to 
> look into JACK.
> 
> I have an ESI Juli@ sound card, which seems to be supported under Linux. 
> Using ALSA and xmms I can easily hear the sound quality is inferior to 
> that of the sound quality in windows using winamp with an ASIO output 
> plugin (and the official esi drivers). All my music is ripped in FLAC 
> and I am using the Sennheiser HD650 headphones with a WooAudio 3 amp. I 
> have jack installed, as well as jackd, and the jack output plugin for 
> xmms. I have gotten basic sound out of jack by entering "jackd -d alsa" 
> into the konsole and selecting the "jack audio connection kit" as the 
> sound system and using the jack output plugin for xmms.
> 

JACK defaults to 48000Hz, and most people's music collection is 44100Hz.

Check what sample rate JACK is running at.

> However I have a feeling it is not set up properly for low-latency 
> output with no resampling because it sounds exactly the same as ALSA, 
> and the software volume control in xmms and in the kmix is still 
> working. After doing some searching on google I have found that versions 
> of JACK 0.80 and under supported ASIO, but it was removed in later 
> versions. Do you know how I would need to set it up to get the 
> functionality I am looking for? And are there any newer music players 
> that support FLAC and JACK output?

The kmix volume control is not software - it's the hardware volume
control of your card.

Try "aplay -D hw:0,0 file.wav".  Does it still sound worse than Windows?
If so it could be a driver issue.

JACK's "ASIO mode" has nothing to do with this problem.

Lee