5 Nov
2005
5 Nov
'05
8:06 a.m.
Jason White wrote:
I am looking for suitable hardware to handle digital
i/o between a Linux
system and an RME ADI-2 ad/da converter that I just bought. I don't need lots
of channels, but reliability of the data transfer is important, including
jitter reduction. An RME card would be excellent but it is somewhat outside my
budget.
Your requirements listed make me think that an RME card is definitely
the way to go. But you say that the budget is a problem.
Now, I always wanted a nice soundcard, with lots of inputs and proper
ALSA support. I always imagined myself getting a Delta 1010, or similar.
I would have preferred an RME card, but it just seemed way over my budget.
However, I was casually browsing eBay one day, and ended up buying a
second-hand RME DIGI9636 for £77 (I'm in the UK). Ok, I had to buy a
replacement EEPROM chip for it, (to make it work with PC hardware,
rather than MAC). But, even then, the overall cost came to less than £100.
I also had to buy a Behringer ADA-8000 to convert the ADAT lightpipe
connections to balanced analogue. But it sounds as though you already
have hardware to do this.
I appreciate that there are various reasons not to buy second-hand. It's
risky - I didn't even know that the card I bought was definitely going
to work! Also, there are no warranties, or hardware support.
For this reason, I find myself looking around for another cheap RME
card! Firstly, I could turn that other linux box into an addition to my
studio... Also, it's always nice to have a backup if something breaks.
I find all the software support I could ever need right here on this
list (Thanks Paul!)
Hope this helps
Michael Nelson