At Wed, 23 Oct 2002 00:07:22 +0300 (EEST),
Kai Vehmanen wrote:
On Tue, 22 Oct 2002, Peter L Jones wrote:
I don't want to have to learn about DSPs and
stuff to be able to identify a
_good_ sound card. I've currently got a shortlist for my next machine:
* MidiMan Delta Audiophile 2496 (Envy24)
* Creative SB PCI 128 (ES1371)
I've used both of these extensively with JACK and numerous other ALSA apps
and they work really well (full-duplex, low-latency use). Other
soundcards/chipsets that I've used:
- snd-intel8x0 (nice chipset, is suitable for low-latency use)
the real-time response is dependent on the system.
some notebooks have problems in this regard.
- snd-cs4281 (good for low-latency although has a max
two-interrupts
per buffer limitation which can confuse apps)
- GUS MAX (this very, very old ISA-card can still beat a number of
today's crappy chipsets... I don't know whether to cry or laugh ;))
Cards that I have no personal experience with, but I've heard very
good things about:
- RME Digi9652
Beware:
- SB AWE models (ugh, crap!)
- Yamaha YMF7xx/DS-XG (some have reported that these work ok,
but in any case they have a max 3 periods limitation
similar to cs4281, which can confuse apps)
no, instead, the interrupts are generated in the fixed time-length,
not at the period boundary or the end of buffer.
thus, this chip doesn't suit for low-latency purpose at all.
the similar case is ESS chips, es1968 and maestro3 (allegro).
that is, many on-board chips on notebooks are crap, unfortunately.
Takashi