Creative SoundBlaster AE-7 Sound Card To Be Supported By Linux 5.10

[Zan Lynx]

I think it is funny, but I haven't used a sound card or even the motherboard audio in 7 years or so.

It's all been HDMI which means I've been using video cards for audio.

I suppose my Dell laptops with Linux use the integrated Intel HDA.

[riffraff]

I guess I'll just continue to make due with my Schiit Audio EITR and Modi Multibit. ;-)

[Adarion]

Since then I've been using USB DACs exclusively and haven't had that problem.

I was looking to buy an Asus Xonar Essence STX II 7.1 (whatever exactly the name was) PCI(e) sound card for my 600 Ohm headphones and for good sound quality (in/out). And, of course, because it has a Linux driver.
But now I read that those may have problems with nearly all of the AM4/Ryzen chipsets...

So is there a Linux driver for the extrnal / USB models?

[numacross]

So is there a Linux driver for the extrnal / USB models?

USB DACs usually work fine with just the standard kernel USB support, but there's a list of known working DACs at Audiophile Linux's site. The comments might be helpful too.

I don't expect any trouble unless there's some esoteric features requiring proprietary manufacturer software, but YMMV. Edit: a few quirky devices are listed on ArchWiki, for example.

[starshipeleven]

Cheap USB DACs deliver good performance too.

Yall need to get ASUS Xonar U3 usb soundcards. Same price and does not hiss at all.

[starshipeleven]

I was looking to buy an Asus Xonar Essence STX II 7.1 (whatever exactly the name was) PCI(e) sound card for my 600 Ohm headphones and for good sound quality (in/out). And, of course, because it has a Linux driver.
But now I read that those may have problems with nearly all of the AM4/Ryzen chipsets...

So is there a Linux driver for the extrnal / USB models?

Afaik ASUS dacs have good support, also USB ones. I had a Xonar U7 and I have a Xonar U3 and they work fine.

[ayumu]

btw topping dx7 is doing everything right I have mentioned above (and more)
But 599€ way above 30€ bucks and even way above 200€.
Nice stuff! Outstanding for the price.

The DX7 Pro It is awesome for the price indeed. I own the DX3 Pro, which was reviewed on the same site and cost me less than $200. It also destroys everything for the price and sounds better than anything else I've ever tried my HD600 on, with the measurements to back it up.

It used to be my standard advice. But unfortunately, they had a problem with the headphone amplifier design yielding high failure rate (and thus returns) within the first few weeks of use. Devices were either fine, or failed withini a month. They couldn't find the problem, even tried running every amp for a large n hours before sending them to try and separate the bad ones early, no dice. So they released a v2 with a new headphone amp design, and the measurements for that one aren't anywhere as good unfortunately, making it actually bad for the price.

Therefore I can't recommend the DX3 Pro anymore (if you order now it'd be v2 for sure), but sadly the DX7 Pro is a hard sell to people who don't understand that objectively (backed with measurements) good hardware does indeed make a difference.

To most people, rather than an amp/dac, I'd suggest getting good headphones (Sennheiser HD600) to start with. They make a much larger difference, against the shit computer speakers or crap gamer headsets people own/use.

[starshipeleven]

I think it is funny, but I haven't used a sound card or even the motherboard audio in 7 years or so.

It's all been HDMI which means I've been using video cards for audio.

HDMI audio is still digital transfer, the DAC (the "sound card" component) is in the receiving device. Monitor or TV, or dedicated audio setup where the main "amplifier" box has HDMI ports with video passthrough

I suppose my Dell laptops with Linux use the integrated Intel HDA.

Which means it's using some Realtek low-end stuff.

[Guest]

I think it is funny, but I haven't used a sound card or even the motherboard audio in 7 years or so.

It's all been HDMI which means I've been using video cards for audio.

I suppose my Dell laptops with Linux use the integrated Intel HDA.

You mean you've been using the monitor's 3.5 mm output? Those DACs tend to be bad though. I'm not even an audiophile and I can tell that it sounds worse than plugging into the motherboard audio sockets.

[Zan Lynx]

You mean you've been using the monitor's 3.5 mm output? Those DACs tend to be bad though. I'm not even an audiophile and I can tell that it sounds worse than plugging into the motherboard audio sockets.

No when I'm at home I use the television speakers. One gaming computer has a real 144 Hz G-Sync monitor, but also a 4K television as a second display. I just use the TV sound.

Another desktop is connected to the living room television which forwards its audio to a Sony receiver and a 5.1 speaker system. Unfortunately Linux cannot construct a Dolby DTS stream so all I get from the computer is stereo. I probably need a new receiver because HDMI 2.0 is supposed to be able to handle 8 uncompressed PCM audio streams, which wouldn't require a patented compression algorithm.