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#1 2021-02-24 08:56:56

linerman
Member
Registered: 2021-02-16
Posts: 79

Dealing with 5 soundcards

Hi,

I have 5 sound cards with my desktop:
- SB X-Fi
- Onboard one: ALC887-VD Analog (disabled in BIOS)
- M Audio Audiophile 24/96
- Sabaj Da3 USB
- HDMI Audio Output (Nvidia)

cat /proc/asound/modules
 0 snd_ctxfi
 1 snd_ice1712
 2 snd_usb_audio
 3 snd_hda_intel
 4 snd_hda_intel

aplay -l
https://cloudvyzor.com/logpad/?query&da … 42b92d5882

I want to play my CD's, 24/96 flacs, 24/192 flacs and DSD files.
That is why I installed DeadBeef and get the sound through Sabaj using PulseAudio output plugin

I configured my daemon.conf :

default-sample-format = float32le
default-sample-rate = 44100
alternate-sample-rate = 192000
default-fragments = 2
 default-fragment-size-msec = 10

To the point:
Still do not know if using Pulse is better than Alsa, regarding quality of sound.
I have not any Alsa /.asoundrc

But if Alsa would be better, than what such files should look like?
Is something like that would be enough?

pcm.!default{
 type hw
 rate 192000
 format S32_LE
 card v12
}
ctl.!default{
 type hw
 rate 192000
 format S32_LE
 card v12
}

Am I supposed to set Sabaj as a default card?
How to switch after that between sample-rates?
Eg. I would like to listen only typical CD, so in alsa sound I will have to change rate to 44100.
Or maybe there is some script to change between needed sample rates?

Last edited by linerman (2021-02-24 09:06:55)

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#2 2021-02-24 09:26:04

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,420

Re: Dealing with 5 soundcards

"Better" in this space is largely subjective. Even if things were resampled, chances that you can actually pick that out during listening are rather slim .

FWIW Pulseaudio is "the script" to change between needed sample rates. It takes care of all of these things as necessary. On ALSA you'd need to manually stop all playback and resume on a different PCM that's configured for a different rate (... or opt for HW exclusive access in which case only one single program can play back at a time). But for pulse the underlying limitations still apply that you can only open the device at one sample rate and everything else has to adjust to that, but pulse will generally try to do the right thing. (... so assuming you start playback with a 192000 file the device will be opened with that and switch down if you switch to a 44100 file). But if you don't notice anything off then this is a largely theorethical excercise and if you are happy with the current setup you should stick with that.

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#3 2021-02-28 08:20:59

linerman
Member
Registered: 2021-02-16
Posts: 79

Re: Dealing with 5 soundcards

I follow your advice and sick to configuration I already have.
Although I have noticed, that during listening to 48000 flac, it was down rated to 44100. Stange, I rather thought it would be up rated to 192000.
I had to edit daemon.conf for a while and put 48000 as a default sample rate.

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#4 2021-02-28 08:35:59

d_fajardo
Member
Registered: 2017-07-28
Posts: 1,563

Re: Dealing with 5 soundcards

You can consider mpd which can be setup to play bit-perfect. I'm just not sure if DeadBeef binds with it but other clients like Cantata works well with mpd and can play bit-perfect.

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