a rant about soundcards and its endless dead-time

[Polytropon]

On Sun, 11 Feb 2018 22:36:17 +0000, Eric Joyner wrote:
> Why not just get a PCI-E sound card in the first place? I don't know why
> someone would go out of their way to get a PCI one in 2018.

MIDI interface? Just guessing...

In the past, you had to introduce a sound card (usually 8-bit
or 16-bit ISA slot on AT and early ATX), but then the onboard
sound became standard. Personally, I was disappointed about
the quality of the first AC'97-based chipsets so I put in a
sound card (with CMI chipset) and it was much better, especially
regarding the CD audio, line-in and microphone connectors. Today,
as I don't do any (more or less) professional audio anymore,
I'd say the builtin audio capabilities are sufficient in most
cases, and "USB sound cards" are the way to go where they are
not sufficient. It seems to be much easier to deal with those,
even though it's a matter of "trial & error" regarding system
support. But testing USB devices is of course easier than
testing PCI cards. Plus - they can be used on several systems
without much problems, it's as simple as "plug pull" and "plug
insert".



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...