|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
96.224.9.2
In Reply to: RE: Not that easy posted by Christine Tham on November 30, 2010 at 21:51:46
"All in all, audio on Linux is a real nightmare. Gone are the good old days when Linux apps could just change the OSS sample rate on the fly. Now we have OSS emulation on top of ALSA, ALSA emulation on top of OSS, pulseaudio as a virtual audio device for ALSA, JACK on top of pulseaudio, and forget any romantic notion of bit-perfect for anything other than 16/44.1!"
No, it really isn't. People do insist on complicating it, though, and for no good reason. Most Linux audio players have the option of talking to the sound card directly by specifying hw;0,0. You can even do it, as I did years ago, with something as ancient as XMMS (http://www.xmms.org/index.html) You get bit-perfect output with on the fly sample rate switching.
I currently get bit-perfect output and on-the-fly sample rate switching from from 44.1 all the way to 192 with nary a hiccup on USB Audio Class 2 hardware. It was that easy even three years ago.
Nick
Follow Ups:
*** People do insist on complicating it, though, and for no good reason. ***
There is a good reason for that complication, at least for me. There is only one audio device on my system, and it needs to be shared across all apps, not just the audio player.
This is not a dedicated system for playing back music - this is a system for doing other things, music playback needs to be mixed in with system notification sounds, web browsing, video playback etc.
I understand that sharing the audio device across multiple apps may not be a requirement for you. However, we all have different requirements.
"There is a good reason for that complication, at least for me. There is only one audio device on my system, and it needs to be shared across all apps, not just the audio player.
This is not a dedicated system for playing back music - this is a system for doing other things, music playback needs to be mixed in with system notification sounds, web browsing, video playback etc.
I understand that sharing the audio device across multiple apps may not be a requirement for you. However, we all have different requirements. "
Christine, let me see if I understand this: Your setup has nothing to do with an audiophile grade sound card? This is just an Ubuntu desktop that you're using as a personal computer?
Laptop. Motherboard HD Audio. Cheap Sennheiser earbuds.
I used to have a dedicated external USB audio device, headphone amp, expensive phones (Etymotics, Audio Technica) blah blah blah
I looked like an audiophool in the plane and on the train. It took minutes to set up everything for a listen.
Then one day I realised that the sound straight out of the motherboard actually sounded pretty decent.
I haven't used the exotic stuff now for a year (apart from my Sleek Audio - will still use that on a plane), and if anything I enjoy music more because it's less cumbersome to set up. I can stop it and start it anytime.
Of course, I still have the dedicated player in the main system for serious listening. And my studio setup with the DAW etc.
Oops. Typo, I meant "No, it really *is* that easy..."
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: