audiophile sound on FreeBSD ?

[Ralf Mardorf]

"Audiophile" is for the sound quality? If so it stands and falls with
the chosen audio device. A long time ago I tested FreeBSD with a
RME HDSPe AIO PCIe card. It's a professional audio quality grade device.

I can't comment on FreeBSD real-time abilities, latency, MIDI jitter
etc., but ass long as you operate with that much latency, that you'll
get no xruns and no other hardware, e.g. the mobo shouldn't cause
such an issue, the sound quality has got nothing to do with the chosen
OS and just a little bit to do with the chosen software.

In short, instead of using a prosumer audio device, you should buy a
professional audio device.

There isn't much choice, since vendors tend not to support drivers for
Linux and FreeBSD.

It's possible to use the RME HDSPe AIO PCIe with FreeBSD and Linux, but
FreeBSD comes without hdspmixer and under Linux you get hdspmixer, but
not all ADAT IOs could be used. Perhaps a class compliant device such as
the RME Babyface works with FreeBSD, too.

When using Linux, then USB is no issue at all, I own a
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, the usable latency with all IOs used is
better than that of my RME PCIe card with just using 4 IOs.

However, regarding audio quality you can't compare a pro-sumer Focusrite
Scarlett series with any professional RME device, excepted of the ADAT
IOs that require an additional device. IOW you could use a pro-sumer
Focusrite Scarlett series with a professional ADAT device to get
professional audio quality.