From: Jacob Lee <artdent(a)gmail.com> Sent: Oct 23, 2008 7:23 PM To: Susan Cragin <susancragin(a)earthlink.net> Cc: linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org Subject: Re: [LAU] Intel-HDA sound issues On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 9:06 PM, Susan Cragin <susancragin(a)earthlink.net> wrote: Yes and no. It works fine and has great sound quality, but there are a few caveats: - it needs custom firmware. You need "madfuload", which comes with many distros (or its homepage is http://usb-midi-fw.sourceforge.net/ ). Getting madfuload to run automatically (i.e. when you plug in the card) is occasionally challenging. - the built-in mic preamp doesn't provide much gain. I needed to use an external preamp. - one tiny 1/8'' connector for two input channels; you'll need adapters to turn that into two 1/4'' (unbalanced) line ins, and I occasionally get loud static by accidentally jostling the adapter. Last: even at mediocre latency settings (e.g. -n 3 -p 512), and having adjusted the IRQ priorities and so forth, I get occasional xruns. However, I think this is a problem with my laptop and not with the sound card, for two reasons: - I had no better luck with another usb sound card - I see xruns when the lcd tries to dim itself or when I go into the power savings dialog, leading me to suspect the video card. So right now I'm inclined to blame the video card hogging the bus or something like that, though I honestly have no clue. But it's probably not the fault of the Transit. In sum, it's a decent card for the price, if it's sufficient for your uses. -- Jacob Lee artdent(a)gmail.com