Re: [Consortium] high-quality sound card for ExpressCard slot which is (well-)supported under Linux - Consortium

26 Dec 2012

Ian,
yes, "Echo Indigo IOx" soundcard seems to be supported by ALSA. I have
always wondered how important is driver support in terms of sound
quality? I mean the digital-to-analog converter should determine the
sound quality and as this is done in hardware, drivers should not
matter (very) much, should they?

Jeremy,
thanks! I mailed my question to Linux Audio Users mailinglist as well.

Daniel,
I agree that USB if more future-proof and ubiquitous compared to
ExpressCard. On the other hand, for example current models of both
Lenovo T series and HP ProBook/EliteBook series support ExpressCard.
As and expansion slot, ExpressCard is currently the standard.

regards,
Martin

2012/12/11 Daniel James &lt;daniel(a)64studio.com&gt;om>:
...
  Hi Ian, hi Martin,

  They are highly supported in Linux and are
 the best converters in the industry. 
 Prism Sound may disagree about who's got the best converters :-)

 These days I would look at USB instead, because your next laptop may not
 have an ExpressCard slot. I'd be willing to lay a bet that USB 3.0 will
 kill off all other laptop interface standards. Also USB works with your
 Liquidsoap server today.

 The Lyra has basic GNU/Linux support:

 http://www.prismsound.com/music_recording/products_subs/lyra/lyra_home.php

 I'm not sure which features you lose by not having a native control
 panel. Maybe it could be made to work under WINE. However if you want
 something from Prism Sound for under $300 you'll have to be happy with a
 T-shirt :-)

 There are plenty of less expensive USB converters. Typically for
 Liquidsoap you only need a single stereo output, which means you can use
 any audiophile converter; you don't need a multichannel pro audio
 interface at all. See http://www.qnktc.com/ab_12.php for an interesting
 DAC project.

 Cheers!

 Daniel 