[LAU] nice piece of USB hardware for 7.1 output

hi *! in case someone is looking for a similar problem solver: i just received an esi gigaport hd+, which is a usb1 class-compliant, bus powered audio interface that provides 8 discrete unbalanced audio outs. at 135€, it's not quite a steal, but it solves one problem: to be able to listen to 5.1/7.1 content with a laptop. it works with jack out of the box and comes with two headphone outs, one of which plays outs1/2, the other plays a pair-wise mix of all eight outs. there is a row of flashing blue leds as "signal present" indicators, although their threshold is a bit on the high side. sound quality is appropriate, i gave it a quick listen and there is nothing obviously wrong. i bought it for use with a raspberry pi, which is the next thing i have to try - will report back. for now & on my laptop, it runs fine at 124x4, haven't tried to push the latency down more, but since it only has outputs, what's the point anyways? best, jörn -- Jörn Nettingsmeier Lortzingstr. 11, 45128 Essen, Tel. +49 177 7937487 Meister für Veranstaltungstechnik (Bühne/Studio) Tonmeister VDT http://stackingdwarves.net