Ubuntu Soundcard experience

Support & Help Requests
#1

Hey Mates,

I'm very upset with the Soundcards support for the Linux platform.
It's such a good and important piece of hardware, but of all it is the most problematic and people seem to just don't give a damn.

They should, when a lot of users have it for a Home-Theatre use like me.
No need to develop complicated third-party drivers, just a plug-and-play from the Kernel, C'mon guys.

So, I need to buy a new soundcard for my Linux system.

Best vendors are Asus, which in my opinion has the most stable drivers and full use of the card

https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Vendor-Asus

And Creative, but Linux support is very buggy

https://www.alsa-project.org/wiki/Matrix:Vendor-Creative_Labs

However this ALSA page is far from updated, the latest driver is for Kernel 3.8 and Xonar DSX.

I believe there are many others working models not shared on these pages, like this guy with an Xonar AE:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3FGKQ7IBL3OML/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B077DGQFTF

And here, Xonar SE and others (translate the page to English)

https://www.muylinux.com/2019/04/15/calidad-sonido-linux-asus-xonar-essence/

Which brand do you think has the best sound quality for playing music?
I'm really not interested in gaming, but a gaming soundcard is most welcomed.

For the last couple of years I've been messing around with the Asus Xonar D2 with excellent use without any issue.
I gotta say it really improves the sound, a lot. The sound of my onboard Realtek ALC1150 is hollow like a greyish xerox, compared to the colorful Monet, full-bodied sound a Xonar D2 gives.

As with all soundcards, it just requires a simple adjustment on alsamixer in the Terminal, and increase all channels to 100%.

But sadly it got fried and now I'm looking for a replacement. Still I recommend it, blindly.

I'm thinking of the Xonar AE, but I'm afraid of a weak support, when there's not enough documentation.
If I get too worried, then I'll go with the Xonar DGX.

Perhaps if Xonar AE having the same CM6632A chipset as Xonar U7, ALSA will accept it?

Anyone who has successfully ran a soundcard on Ubuntu not listed on ALSA page, please share us a feedback.

Please share here documentation, guidance and experiences found around the web.

Many thanks.

#2

Really, no one in the MATE community has a working Soundcard? :sob:

#3

That is a pretty specific question.
I have a working sound card, but it is the one that came with my laptop, a System 76, and like all laptops the sound sucks, I use headphones.

#4

I guess for most people onboard sound has been in the "good enough" territory for so many years, that it has become rare to bother adding a soundcard.

One of my PCs does have a soundcard installed, but it's a really old one (Creative Soundblaster Live), which I mainly added for the onboard synthesizer so I don't have to run FluidSynth for Dosbox games (avoids hanging notes when quitting a game while MIDI music is playing).

#5

I believe you have an onboard Realtek chipset, pretty much what comes with every computer and that's why it sucks.

Now, if you wanna advance your aural experience there are USB dedicated soundcards for use in Laptops. You'll not regret it :dvd:

#6

Unfortunately. Most people don't notice right away the difference of sound between onboard and dedicated cards and criticize them as an unnecessary component. But if you sit and listen all your favorite tracks you begin to notice the richness in details and much more.

Almost all models of the SoundBlaster Live! are well supported under ALSA, good that you found the right one for your use. However that's not true for several Creative models, lots of instability and missing features.

My Asus Xonar D2 is the first soundcard released by Asus in 2008, but it's not old at all and has excellent features that are still being used today in Blu-Rays like 7.1 audio, 192/23 Full Duplex HD, Dolby and DTS studio. It sounds like... heaven.

#7

I'm running Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS instead of MATE, but found this while searching on how to get my ASUS Xonar SE card S/PDIF working. I can get analog output to work, but not digital. I've tried everything that a search on Xonar S/PDIF provides on trying to get digital sound output without success. It's a shame as I bought the card specifically for the S/PDIF port since my motherboard does not have a digital sound port.