[LAU] 384kHz DAC - Monolith USB?

Len Ovens len at ovenwerks.net
Tue Apr 3 22:11:06 CEST 2018


On Tue, 3 Apr 2018, Chris Chronopoulos wrote:

> unfortunately the original question has still not been addressed: can this (or
> other similar) interfaces be run on ALSA drivers at 384 kHz?
> 
> this i can concede to, and i should clarify that what i'm really interested in is
> the high sample rate USB to PCM (I2S) interface. there are dedicated parts that
> accomplish this for much less than $100, which is why i'm interested in users'
> alsa experiences at this sample rate.

If you want 16 outputs, then I would think you also want ALSA to see a 
much lower sample rate in any case. That is, 16 (or 8 per channel) from 
whatever app to ALSA 16 ports at 48K. Then your custom alsa driver will 
access the buffers of those ports and basically rearange the data into a 
second buffer than gets sent via USB to your device. Most USB devices can 
handle a buffer size of 128 which is the same speed/latency as 384k with a 
buffer size of 1024.

I am not sure of that is clear, 384k at the alsa end would need to have a 
buffer size of 1024 for the same stability and latency as a 48k device 
with buffer size 128. I think pretty much any usb device can run at 48k 
with buffer at 128. With the custom driver between alsa and USB, the alsa 
buffer size would be 8 times smaller and the sample rate would also be 8 
times smaller than at the USB end. I would tend to go with the maximum 
buffer size the device will handle because it is output only and so 
latency is unlikely to be noticable.

If you really want to do your conversion before alsa, I do not see any 
reason you could not. However, you do need to remember that whatever 
buffersize you are used to will not mean the same thing. That is, if you 
have trouble with a 48k device at 128 buffer size, you will have the same 
problem with a 384k device at 1024 buffer size.

Alsa does not determine the buffer size, the application connecting to 
alsa does, within the limits of the driver.

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net


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