Thanks for this valuable input. So...if the HDSP9652 is not the best ADAT card available for Linux, would the Digi9636 (the HammerFall Lite) be a better option? I found a discussion of this very thing from earlier in the month, but am wondering why the AP2496 limits your options for real-time recording work? The AP2496 has no optical inputs and the DiO 2496 from M-Audio seems to be the only card they have that does have them, and that is only 2 X 4 in/out. I don't seem to have many options in choosing ADAT cards here. Mark Knecht from earlier March 8th post: the Linux drivers will do what you need. You had said this on a previous post and I was wondering what you meant by stand alone. Which RME card seems to work the best for recording work? I'm looking at that new M-Audio Octane as a possibility. Am I correct in that the RME cards have the converters on them, or are the converters on the preamp/optical out interface? Thanks for bearing with me on this, gk