I am blaming you for claiming one literally cannot find sound hardware that works on Linux. It is a false statement. You can say whatever you want about “support” and pretend that is a standard to measure by but the actual truth you intend to obscure is that for nearly any sound hardware, it will work without any effort or attention paid whatsoever. It doesn’t matter in the least what companies claim to support Linux. 99% chance it works fine for any given random hardware.
‘I cannot find an add-on sound card that claims compatability with Linux at a reasonable cost’ != ‘everyone with a Linux machine doesn’t have sound’.
Find me a pci sound card that can handle 5.1 channel audio over 3.5mm. I spent a couple hours several weeks ago and came up empty (excluding the aforementioned card for creators).
That’s demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of how support works on Linux. You won’t find many pieces of hardware that claim support and yet nearly all of it works with the OS, usually with little to zero effort. I can’t be sure if you know this and pretend not to, or somehow missed it, but that’s how it works.
Forum posts and my own experience say that cards from Creative Labs and Asus, which both work correctly under windows, fail to achieve correct output above 2.0 (2.1?). There are almost no other options for pci add-on sound cards, being a niche market for the last 15 years or so.
So, unless you can point me to a card that I can purchase today and that has either a manufacturer-backed statement of compatability, or there are current owners who own that card, this conversation is over. I’ve given you way too much of my time, misunderstanding and misinterpret what is a basic concept and statement, such that you are not acting in good faith. I’d be happy to find a card that fits my quite basic requirements, but everything that I came across myself had reports of issues, or dead-end forum posts where no solution was reached.
Well, when you are approached by someone who doesn’t read nor understand the conversation or arguments brought forth, who then argues with you regarding said topic and situations - in which you have personal experience with - and who reiterates the same argument that is based on flawed data and assumptions, causing you to stay up for several hours as you try and explain the situation and points, while you grow more and more frustrated (see all points ststed above)… and at the conclusion of the conversation, they have added no value nor insight to the original discussion which, again, they didn’t fully understand… you let me know at what stage you’d be a bit frustrated.
Myself, I give people waaayyyyyyy too much credit, leeway, benefit of the doubt. Way too much. And most of the time, yeah, it’s a misunderstanding, they appreciate the kindness, everyone is happy. But others, it’s just malace, trying to harm me, break me.
I can be the nicest guy in the world, and people will still say I’m an asshole because they disagree with something, or they don’t understand what my core statements are, or any other number of reasons. I used to be that way, nice to everyone all the time, even those who used me, exploited me, manipulated me. I stopped being a pushover after I suffered my stroke, effectively losing function of half my body. After that, nah, not anymore. I wasted my whole life up until that point kissing behinds and getting shit in return. I don’t do that anymore.
I don’t care if you dislike me. I don’t care what you think about me in any capacity, frankly. It would all be wrong anyway, so why get worked up over it. But what I’ve learned in the twilight hours of this morning, is that all your aggravation pointed at me, isn’t my fault. And that is so… relaxing. Comforting.
Anyway, I’m finally off to bed now. The sun is rising, and I’m exhausted.
I haven’t made the switch away from Windows yet, but I hope to try in the near future. So I don’t know if my suggestion is of any help to you. But I’m one of the other weirdos not using onboard sound. Is there a reason you need a PCI card specifically?
Most good options these days are external. I had an external sound blaster for years that I bought before learning that it was basically just a sound blaster branded external DAC. When I can, I want to replace it with either another external DAC from a proper audio manufacturer or a USB audio interface.
If you look for those instead of sound cards, you’ll find a lot more options. I have no idea if that’s useful to you or if any of them work in Linux, though. Well… some idea. I know somebody who I think is running Linux with his DAC, now that I think about it.
No actually requirement to remain on pci, other than not wanting to buy new hardware if I don’t have to (money is tight too, being disabled and all) - I’ve been using pci sound blaster cards for 20 years now, and one of the current two has been in my box for nearly (maybe actually) 15 years now? The SB Z, and SB AE-5. There’s also the slight preference of not having more stuff dangling out of the back of my box, but I could get over that I guess. I’ve never looked at USB solutions (or anything external really) so I don’t know anything about them, other than they exist.
I’d also like to retain software settings (I guess hardware switches, if available as an alternative) if at all possible, which as far as I can tell, I cannot on the cards I currently have (SB software is windows-only). Since currently my use case is gaming + music on the one card, while voice chat on the other, that way I can get clear voices on my headset at a lower volume while my 5.1 gives me louder, positional game audio. Both speakers and headset are 3.5mm, as I know the SB cards work well, so (at purchase) I wanted the only thing altering the signal was the SB card itself, instead of using say a Logitech USB headset with its own independent controls or something, bypassing. I swear off wireless headsets for this reason.
It basically comes down to ‘it’s what I’ve always used’ and ‘don’t fix what isn’t broken’, with a sprinkle of ‘I don’t trust anything else or know of what to look for’ :P
Got suggestions on where to start looking/brands to check into?
Yeah, I understand very well. My disability is different, but money is still tight and when my Sound Blaster died it was really annoying trying to find a way to replace it within my budget and without rearranging my whole setup. I’m new to audiophile stuff too so it’s intimidating and a lot to learn.
For my use case, I look more into the USB audio interface side of things because I need to have an XLR input and a monitoring plug with zero latency. If you don’t need anything like that, then a DAC or a DAC/amp combo is what you want. I’m not really an audiophile and this is getting into that area so I’m not the best person to explain it. Definitely take anything I say with a grain of salt and make sure you check. But I think you only really need the amp if it’s required to drive your headphones. If you don’t have high impedance headphones, then you should be able to skip the amp and just get any DAC that fits your needs.
There’s a huge variety of brands, price points, and features. It’s dipping your toe into the audiophile world so the rabbit hole is bottomless, but you can also find very good quality gear on a budget. FiiO, Topping, and Hifiman are brands I recognize, but there are plenty of others I don’t which I’m sure would still be good. It’s the kind of gear somebody buys and expects to still be working in ten years.
The one thing I personally would look for is I would avoid anything with an internal battery. That’s why my Sound Blaster died. For whatever reason, they gave it an internal battery so you could unplug it and use it as a portable headphone amp. I never needed or wanted that, but the battery started expanding and died after over ten years, so that was the end. It’s not a feature I care about, so I’m better off getting something without a battery.
For what it’s worth, a quick search suggests any USB DAC should work fine in both Windows and Linux as long as it doesn’t require special software. So if you look for an affordable USB DAC with physical buttons/dials and all the inputs and features you want, that should help narrow things down to start. You can definitely find one with multiple inputs for both the speakers and a headset, and possibly different volume settings. But I’m not sure - different settings for different inputs might also be more in the realm of a USB audio interface, which may not be as good of a fit for your situation. But you could always look: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and Motu M2 2x2 are very strong contenders for me.
Also, at least in the US, Sweetwater is a reputable site for audio gear. I’m sure there are others, of course, but it’s a start.
Yeah I saw you be hostile to someone for trying to show you empathy. Then you wrote a long bad faith argument claiming sound support for your case isn’t a thing. So it’s rich for you to blame others for the conversation not going well.
You can “miss me” with the “I’m such a good person and everyone who has an issue with me isn’t” act which any fool can see through.
I am blaming you for claiming one literally cannot find sound hardware that works on Linux. It is a false statement. You can say whatever you want about “support” and pretend that is a standard to measure by but the actual truth you intend to obscure is that for nearly any sound hardware, it will work without any effort or attention paid whatsoever. It doesn’t matter in the least what companies claim to support Linux. 99% chance it works fine for any given random hardware.
‘I cannot find an add-on sound card that claims compatability with Linux at a reasonable cost’ != ‘everyone with a Linux machine doesn’t have sound’.
Find me a pci sound card that can handle 5.1 channel audio over 3.5mm. I spent a couple hours several weeks ago and came up empty (excluding the aforementioned card for creators).
That’s demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of how support works on Linux. You won’t find many pieces of hardware that claim support and yet nearly all of it works with the OS, usually with little to zero effort. I can’t be sure if you know this and pretend not to, or somehow missed it, but that’s how it works.
Forum posts and my own experience say that cards from Creative Labs and Asus, which both work correctly under windows, fail to achieve correct output above 2.0 (2.1?). There are almost no other options for pci add-on sound cards, being a niche market for the last 15 years or so.
So, unless you can point me to a card that I can purchase today and that has either a manufacturer-backed statement of compatability, or there are current owners who own that card, this conversation is over. I’ve given you way too much of my time, misunderstanding and misinterpret what is a basic concept and statement, such that you are not acting in good faith. I’d be happy to find a card that fits my quite basic requirements, but everything that I came across myself had reports of issues, or dead-end forum posts where no solution was reached.
So, do you have a card for me or not?
I can say two things. The way you write here makes me dislike you.
If that was my problem to solve, I would.
Well, when you are approached by someone who doesn’t read nor understand the conversation or arguments brought forth, who then argues with you regarding said topic and situations - in which you have personal experience with - and who reiterates the same argument that is based on flawed data and assumptions, causing you to stay up for several hours as you try and explain the situation and points, while you grow more and more frustrated (see all points ststed above)… and at the conclusion of the conversation, they have added no value nor insight to the original discussion which, again, they didn’t fully understand… you let me know at what stage you’d be a bit frustrated.
Myself, I give people waaayyyyyyy too much credit, leeway, benefit of the doubt. Way too much. And most of the time, yeah, it’s a misunderstanding, they appreciate the kindness, everyone is happy. But others, it’s just malace, trying to harm me, break me.
I can be the nicest guy in the world, and people will still say I’m an asshole because they disagree with something, or they don’t understand what my core statements are, or any other number of reasons. I used to be that way, nice to everyone all the time, even those who used me, exploited me, manipulated me. I stopped being a pushover after I suffered my stroke, effectively losing function of half my body. After that, nah, not anymore. I wasted my whole life up until that point kissing behinds and getting shit in return. I don’t do that anymore.
I don’t care if you dislike me. I don’t care what you think about me in any capacity, frankly. It would all be wrong anyway, so why get worked up over it. But what I’ve learned in the twilight hours of this morning, is that all your aggravation pointed at me, isn’t my fault. And that is so… relaxing. Comforting.
Anyway, I’m finally off to bed now. The sun is rising, and I’m exhausted.
I haven’t made the switch away from Windows yet, but I hope to try in the near future. So I don’t know if my suggestion is of any help to you. But I’m one of the other weirdos not using onboard sound. Is there a reason you need a PCI card specifically?
Most good options these days are external. I had an external sound blaster for years that I bought before learning that it was basically just a sound blaster branded external DAC. When I can, I want to replace it with either another external DAC from a proper audio manufacturer or a USB audio interface.
If you look for those instead of sound cards, you’ll find a lot more options. I have no idea if that’s useful to you or if any of them work in Linux, though. Well… some idea. I know somebody who I think is running Linux with his DAC, now that I think about it.
So, I hope that’s helpful to you. Cheers :)
No actually requirement to remain on pci, other than not wanting to buy new hardware if I don’t have to (money is tight too, being disabled and all) - I’ve been using pci sound blaster cards for 20 years now, and one of the current two has been in my box for nearly (maybe actually) 15 years now? The SB Z, and SB AE-5. There’s also the slight preference of not having more stuff dangling out of the back of my box, but I could get over that I guess. I’ve never looked at USB solutions (or anything external really) so I don’t know anything about them, other than they exist.
I’d also like to retain software settings (I guess hardware switches, if available as an alternative) if at all possible, which as far as I can tell, I cannot on the cards I currently have (SB software is windows-only). Since currently my use case is gaming + music on the one card, while voice chat on the other, that way I can get clear voices on my headset at a lower volume while my 5.1 gives me louder, positional game audio. Both speakers and headset are 3.5mm, as I know the SB cards work well, so (at purchase) I wanted the only thing altering the signal was the SB card itself, instead of using say a Logitech USB headset with its own independent controls or something, bypassing. I swear off wireless headsets for this reason.
It basically comes down to ‘it’s what I’ve always used’ and ‘don’t fix what isn’t broken’, with a sprinkle of ‘I don’t trust anything else or know of what to look for’ :P
Got suggestions on where to start looking/brands to check into?
Thanks ^_^
Yeah, I understand very well. My disability is different, but money is still tight and when my Sound Blaster died it was really annoying trying to find a way to replace it within my budget and without rearranging my whole setup. I’m new to audiophile stuff too so it’s intimidating and a lot to learn.
For my use case, I look more into the USB audio interface side of things because I need to have an XLR input and a monitoring plug with zero latency. If you don’t need anything like that, then a DAC or a DAC/amp combo is what you want. I’m not really an audiophile and this is getting into that area so I’m not the best person to explain it. Definitely take anything I say with a grain of salt and make sure you check. But I think you only really need the amp if it’s required to drive your headphones. If you don’t have high impedance headphones, then you should be able to skip the amp and just get any DAC that fits your needs.
There’s a huge variety of brands, price points, and features. It’s dipping your toe into the audiophile world so the rabbit hole is bottomless, but you can also find very good quality gear on a budget. FiiO, Topping, and Hifiman are brands I recognize, but there are plenty of others I don’t which I’m sure would still be good. It’s the kind of gear somebody buys and expects to still be working in ten years.
The one thing I personally would look for is I would avoid anything with an internal battery. That’s why my Sound Blaster died. For whatever reason, they gave it an internal battery so you could unplug it and use it as a portable headphone amp. I never needed or wanted that, but the battery started expanding and died after over ten years, so that was the end. It’s not a feature I care about, so I’m better off getting something without a battery.
For what it’s worth, a quick search suggests any USB DAC should work fine in both Windows and Linux as long as it doesn’t require special software. So if you look for an affordable USB DAC with physical buttons/dials and all the inputs and features you want, that should help narrow things down to start. You can definitely find one with multiple inputs for both the speakers and a headset, and possibly different volume settings. But I’m not sure - different settings for different inputs might also be more in the realm of a USB audio interface, which may not be as good of a fit for your situation. But you could always look: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and Motu M2 2x2 are very strong contenders for me.
Also, at least in the US, Sweetwater is a reputable site for audio gear. I’m sure there are others, of course, but it’s a start.
Good luck!
Yeah I saw you be hostile to someone for trying to show you empathy. Then you wrote a long bad faith argument claiming sound support for your case isn’t a thing. So it’s rich for you to blame others for the conversation not going well.
You can “miss me” with the “I’m such a good person and everyone who has an issue with me isn’t” act which any fool can see through.