[linux-audio-user] UA-25 and other USB audio options

Hi everyone, my first post here, after a long while lurking and reading archives - so first: thanks for all the help I've already got from this list (quite a lot!) I want to do some audio stuff on my new laptop - it's an AMD-64 box with a via k8t890 / vt8237 chipset.. I'm able to get jackd at -p 64 on an unpatched 2.6.14-rc5 kernel, but I'd like a better quality soundcard. It has ExpressCard slot, but no PCMCIA, so that is out, and the firewire support looks too experimental for me just now, leaving me with USB as the only option, it seems. Ideally, I'd like to work in 64-bit mode, but I can boot into a 32-bit installation if unavoidable (32-bit is gentoo, 64-bit is slamd64 right now). After looking at the market, the edirol / roland UA-25 looks like a good basic unit for my needs (occasional mic recording, guitar input, midi) and my budget (not entirely fixed, but the ~ 150 GBP is, er, "convenient" just now..:) However I've seen some problems mentioned on this list with that card, and I'm unsure about the via usb controller on my m/b: 00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81) (prog-if 00 [UHCI]) [four of these, though only 3 physical ports..] 00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86) (prog-if 20 [EHCI]) I've seen some worrying things written about the VT82xxxxx and audio. I've also looked into the UR-80, similarly priced Tascam and M-audio models, the UA-101 (more expensive, but I could just about buy that if it turned out to be a good idea), the BCA-2000 (what a shame!) and the Mindprint Trio USB (which has no midi, but looks like an interesting bit of kit - again, I could just about stretch to it - it claims to work with standard USB drivers on windows, but haven't seen any mention of it on linux-related sites..) I'd welcome any advice related to the above, in particular reports of working UA-25's on VT82xxxxx (rev 81! ;-) controllers, or strong recommendations pro or anti the other hardware I've mentioned, or indeed ones I haven't thought of.. Thanks for any contributions received! Cheers, - Pete.