Re: HDSP 9632 driver and expansion cards

["Ed Wildgoose" <Ed@Wildgooses.com>]

> > > Florin Andrei wrote :
> > > > Anyone using the latest RME HDSP 9632 driver in ALSA, while also
using
> > > > the expansion cards? I mean, the newer AI4S-192 and/or AO4S-192
which
> > > > are required to get the 192kHz sampling on all analogs.
>
> > I have a 9632 now and also the 4 port analogue expansion card.
>
> The new, 192kHz ones?

Hi, tested this very briefly last night (I only have enough plugs to wire up
a single channel...), and got sound out of it!!  Wahey!

Yes, it is the new 192Khz one, and the card has balanced, large 1/4" phono
sockets out of the back (which is useful, yet inconvenient).

For what it is worth, I have an RME 96/8PAD card, and the sound quality
(analogue out) is basically identical.  Test done using a fairly decent hifi
system with speakers.  Perhaps with headphones you could discern a
difference?

I would suggest that you could save money and stick with the 96khz 96/8PAD
card unless you need some of the 9632 features

Both however, have excellent sound quality and are easily on a par with my
Meridian 508.24 CD player.  I can hear practically no difference on the
analogue output of each.  I would very much recommend the card to anyone
looking to implement a high end hifi system and not wanting to have to feed
CD's into the machine (rip 'em all to the HD and play them all from the
couch with a remote control...)

However, as a negative to the 9632 card, I find that I can't use it with
many apps such as Mythtv, mplayer, etc.  The sound just stutters.  I suspect
that the driver defaults to a short period size and some of these apps don't
request anything other than the default?  Is there any way to use the
asound.conf file to force a specific period size?  Since this is just doing
home music duties, I don't really need or care for the ultra-low latency
capabilities of the 9632...

It would also be extremely cool if there was a simple master mixer control
in the alsa mixer.  This would reduce all channels simultaneously and allow
easy use as a 5.1 surround component.

Thanks very much to Thomas for writing this driver!

Ed W



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