[CLUE-Tech] SB-Live latency issues (yuck)

[Dave Price]

gang,

After tolerating pathetic performance from a SB Live (emu10k1) sound
card for a LONG time under kernel 2.2.19, I finally got around to
dropping a (cheap) ensoniq 5880 pci card into the same box, and
configuring drivers for both cards as modules under kernel 2.4.14 and
2.4.16 (.16 with and without low-latency patches).

To my dismay, the ensoniq card has NO dropout problems at all, where the
SB Live has horrible dropouts when playing mp3 files (mpg123).  The
dropouts occur under light load, and can be triggered by switching
workspaces or moving a window in blackbox.  The ensoniq card is rock
solid even when web browsing or downloading LARGE files to the same
drive as the mp3 files that are playing.

Sadly, the SB Live card work(ed) great under windoze, but i no longer
run windoze on this box.

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced PCI sound card that works well
under linux, and has good recording and playback quality ('near
audiophile')? ... It seems as thought the emu10k1 has a checkered
past in the open source world, and the picture does not seems to be
looking any brighter.

aloha,
dave