audio card advice - juli@ or Prodigy hd2

[Ken Gunderson]

>Hi Ken,

Howdy:)

>Ken Gunderson wrote:
>[snipped]
>> ... So I'm
>> curious if anybody running either of these cards running under
>> FreeBSD
>> can offer any feedback.

>I'm running neither the Juli@ nor the Prodigy but a Terratec Phase 22 
>(using snd_envy24ht). The sound is great -- it's the best audio card I 
>came across till now. Even if I pump up the volume to the maximum the 
>sound is nice and clear -- but then I'm pushing the Sennheiser HD 500
>to its limits ;-)

Yeah, those caught my eye as well.  Basically all the envy24ht stuff
seriously rocks. So it comes down to how well the snd_envy24ht works
with a particular card.  I think Konstantin runs the prodigy hd2 gold
so that should be pretty good, but I can only find the "non gold" in US
and I think it uses slightly different chips.

>The FreeBSD-Wiki has some more information about the status of the 
>support for the line of envy24-based cards: 
>http://wiki.freebsd.org/soundsystem

Thank you for the pointer.  Am familiar with it already. 

>From your report sounds like the snd_envy24ht drivers are up to snuff
so comes down to flipping a coin.  Current Senns don't need preamp and
I like plugging into front of case so I'm leaning towards the Juli@ at
this juncture as even though it's an older card since my monitors do
support balanced inputs.  The AudioTrak is the "consumer grade" line
from ESI and comes only with rca unbalanced (either connects are still
going to be better than a mini...;-) The HD2 headphone preamp only
becomes a factor if I decide to splurge on the K701's.  I've drooled
over them for a while now but will likely have to drool a while longer
before I can justify having a 2nd pair of expensive cans.

Thanks for the insights-- Ken

-- 
Ken Gunderson <kgunders at teamcool.net>