[linux-audio-user] Re: Cheap USB "soundcards" (resending. Now with subject)

[Frank Barknecht]

Hallo,
Carlo Capocasa hat gesagt: // Carlo Capocasa wrote:

> I would generally recommend firewire cards at the moment since I have
> the feeling you might at some point use the same device to start doing
> something that requires low latency with your device.

But there are no cheap FW cards out there at all, except the
Behringer, which isn't supported AFAIK. And latency numbers are
irrelevant when listening to music. Plus: Most laptops only have
firewire connectors that cannot be used to power the FW soundcard, so
you cannot use it without an external power supply. 

> Hasse Hagen Johansen wrote:
> > Sorry forgot the subject in the last mail
> > Hi
> > I am looking at usb soundcards for listening to music on my
> > laptop. Right now I got down to three candidates:
> > - Terratec Aureon 5.1 USB MKII
> > Pros: Cheap.Have both TOSLINK in/out
> > Cons: "Only" 16bit up to 48KHz

Nice card, dead easy to set up and will play MP3s with acceptable
quality (you won't get 24bit/96kHz out of "CD-quality" music anyways,
so if listening to that kind of music is your priority, those higher
output formats aren't of much use to you). Has 6-channel output so you
can even use it for DJing with Mixxx etc. The internal adc/dac is only
operating at 20bits, though. 

I have used the card on stage, but I've upgraded to the Terratec
Phase26 by now which has better sound quality because of better
converters. However I think the Aureon has a really good
price/performance+features ratio that is very hard to beat.

Ciao
-- 
 Frank Barknecht                 _ ______footils.org_ __goto10.org__