[linux-audio-user] Straight-talking digitally

Hi all, This might seem like a silly question, but I'm having an unexpectedly hard time putting together something I consider to be quite simple in essence. The intent: play music from PC (eg .ogg/.mp3 etc) via S/PDIF to an external DAC, and thence to sound system. The problem: finding a soundcard supported by Linux and which offers the option of unadulterated digital output. Ie. I want the soundcard to simply stream the bits at 44.1Khz (or 48) and not shag around with it in any way. My current setup is a compromise. I have onboard sound with a VIA8233 (Avance AC'97) 6ch chipset, and am using Windows XP with this, since the latest ALSA driver doesn't produce any sound on the S/PDIF output (although the optical port lights up). Trouble is, I don't trust the Windows driver, since the control panel for it allows me to select DSP environments and use a graphic equaliser. With the environment set to "none" and the equaliser off is it providing a "pure" bitstream un-molested in any way? Who knows. So, the question to you is simply: do you know of any soundcards which would fit the bill - ie. with a fully working Linux driver, and known to be configured to produce "pure" digital out. Cheers, Paul. -- Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology: There's always one more bug.