Hi Ronan, first, RME Firewire devices are not supported (yet) AFAIK. On 16/01/07, ronan mcallister <bass.woofer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I'm writing to ask about the RME cards relatively to Linux (I'm using > Suse 10.1) -- which RME cards are the most fully-featured to work with > ALSA in the various product lines? Which cards within those most > actively "supported" by the driver developers are the most robust and > the best cost/feature wise? Which have the most flexibilty? The flexibility part depends on your needs. I use a bunch of Multifaces (>15) and Digifaces (>8) on a number of machines (>24), as well as three MADI systems and one HDSP9652. The MADI systems have the highest number of I/O channels. The HDSP 9652 is like a built-in Digiface. If you need that many channels, you would have to get a Digiface and some ADI-8 AD/DAs. ADI-8 are high quality units that convert ADAT to analog and vice versa, at a pretty high price. I also tried using Alesis units that also do analog to ADAT conversion, but all odd channels have a 1.3 sample latency with respect to the even channels, so they're unusable to me. > The 9632 can handle supposedly 6 I/O simultaneously. > Is my assumption I'd need one output card for use to implement a 2X6 > analog I/O correct? You need one input channel per speaker and apparently three outputs. While I personally think that that is overkill (why not make a good analog crossover), that's what you'd have to do. So for a 5.1 system you'd need 16 channels (3x5 for 5 surround channels plus 1 for the sub). > Which of the RME cards are most actively used/supported? Support is good for all PCI-based cards. Keep your mitts off the Firewire units. > Are there any other sound cards with similar characteristics that > might be a better choice? I don't know of any that are that good. For that reason I (well, my company) uses RME. > I can buy dedicated prosound or > home hifi equipment (loudspeaker management system) to do the same for > less money -- yet I'd rather implement in something like BruteFIR and > Linux if I can avoid commercial equipment. Not to mention the flexibility you'll get. But you'll pay dearly for it. > Oh and one problem with the RME card is if I need onboard I/O cards, > it will take up more PCI slots than I have (I only have one spare PCE > card). I'd have to find a PCI extender etc. I wonder if I should > look at a fully outboard firewire device? RME HDSP 9652 takes one PCI slot and one additional slot cover without occupying the actual slot. Plus external AD/DAs. HTH, RoMan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
