Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

[Mountain Man]

Seems a lot of info about Linux compatible sound cards on the internet is sparse, contradictory, and out of date. Can anybody set the record straight and recommend a good, fully compatible sound card for Linux? Are Creative x-fi cards still out, or do they actually work now?

[dibl]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

Here is your authoritative source of information: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page

On the left side are the navigation links -- use the fourth one down "Soundcards" to see the database.

[Mountain Man]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

So if it's listed there, it's supported unless noted otherwise?

[woodsmoke]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

Hi
I use nothing but the old soundblaster live! cards. I buy the big galumphin speakers and subwhoofer from the early 2000s

put the sub on the floor and the big honkers behind books or model airplanes or something.

People say........WHERE DID YOU GET THAT GREAT SOUND SYSTEM!!!

And their jaws drop!!

A typical older Soundblaster Live! card that you can buy for five bucks usd but produces great sound and also for an extra set of "rear" speakers if one wants them:



speakers that you can mix with any sub that has appropriate plugs

Altec:



Boston:

[Bolly]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

I use an Asus Xonar D2X and it been fine, and it is a good (but not pro) card.

[dibl]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

So if it's listed there, it's supported unless noted otherwise?

Yes.

Personally, I've been buying "upscale" motherboards with the better HDA Intel sound chips in recent years, and then buying a decent pair of speakers with a subwoofer. Intel's line of "extreme series" desktop boards are great. I'm also very happy with my Asus P6X58D-E board, with a set of Altec Lansing speakers. You pay more for these motherboards, but then you can skip the sound card and the fiddling about.

(of course, if I could find enough juice to run my Celestion Ditton 15 XR speakers with this thing ...)

[rfakhrai]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

Celestion Ditton 15 XR

[woodsmoke]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card



Well I don't have Dittons, wish I did! But, I do have Wharfendale Pacific 10s hooked to the home theatre system and a two buck soundblaster live going into the pre-amp sounds pretty good driving them! (I've got the last release of Klikit on the computer which I use as my game system).

So.... how long have you had them? Did you get them "back in the day"? Cool speakers!

woodsmoke

[dibl]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

So.... how long have you had them? Did you get them "back in the day"? Cool speakers!

Yes -- I'm the original owner. If memory serves (and it doesn't, much) the year was 1980. I powered them with a Pioneer SX-3800 receiver. There was a turntable and a tapedeck -- maybe it was an Onkyo. The Dittons are in my garage now -- they play the local PBS radio station with a dramatic flair.

[Snowhog]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

Nice items to be sure. Oldies but goodies.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

yep, gooooooddd stuff all!

I know that "they" say you can get great sound out of doof little speakers but in some things size does matter!
lol

woodtonguehangingoutsmoke

[ccnjim]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

My sound blaster audigy2zs platinum works fine in kubuntu. I have a thrifty logitech 5.1 speaker system hooked up to it and they sound pretty good to me. When I play music I mostly listen with a set of BOSE quiet comfort 2 headphones.
Don't have any of the other speakers mentioned but I still have a pair of Infinity column II speakers in my bedroom that I bought in 1978.

[Mountain Man]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

I currently have an old Sound Blaster Audigy with firewire that I've been using for probably 10-years. It works perfectly in Linux, so I may as well stick with it. I'm in the process of building a new system, and I wanted to leave the current system intact so the kids would have something to bang around on. I did pick up a Diamond XtremeSound XS71, but now I'm having second thoughts about it, so maybe I'll give that one to the kids and keep the Audigy since it's a known quantity, and I've been happy with it. Either that or I'll return the Diamond card and let the kids be happy with onboard sound.

[rfakhrai]

Re: Looking for a good Linux compatible sound card

Snowhog and woodsmoke, good stuff definitely. I guess I never pieced it together but it makes sense that computer nerds would mostly be audiophiles, too! Myself, Sansui BA-3000 driving some Infinity speakers that do not in any way match the fidelity that the amp provides. Waiting for a bit more pocket change

Anyway! Sorry to derail the thread but hopefully the OP now has some good answers.