I'm building a media center with myth TV and I just noticed that one of my machines collecting dust has a sound blaster live in it. It has PCI interface.
My question is, would I be better off using the onboard Realtek ALC892 or going with a older PCI SB Live?

Try both of them, the on board ones are usually low quality, and the pci that you got may be obsolete,
use this to load you the one of them first
echo "options snd-***** index=0" >> /etc/modprobe.d/local.conf
the ******* is the name of your card, you can get it by lspci command or arecord -l
and block the one that you don't want to use by

echo "blacklist snd-*******" >> /etc/modprobe.d/local.conf, how ever if you decided not to use the on board one, be better to disable it from bios.

mreff, I don't what distro you are currently using, but PCI SB Live is among the best supported sounds cards in Linux. Hardware is not usually obsoleted in Linux. YOu might run into trouble with two sound cards though if the default sound device is incorrectly set. I hope you are using Alsa and not pulse. Documentation about how to set the default sound device in Alsa is plentyful.

jlinkels

Hi there, you asked for opinion, I gave it to you, I am not here to pick a fight with you, I use Debian, and at work Fedora/Scientific Linux/Centos. And I use Pulseaudio.


echo "options snd-***** index=0" >> /etc/modprobe.d/local.conf
The above command with Index=0 will load the sound card that you prefer first, so you have the choice of trying them, I use on board sound card and since I am not in to music etc , I just just use sound occasionally . And have no idea about quality of sound card or best brands.
I usually have problem with sound card when my friends install Linux on their computers and come to forums for help.
Take it easy

I didn't try to pick a fight. But thanks to both of you for the info.

Complicated question with various possible answers. BTW, there are far to many SBlive models around, and even listing them all isnt fun. Some of them are dodgier than others (eg, the dell OEM versions).

SBlive! cards all have a nasty resampling problem. Realtek ALC892 dont have the resampling problem AFAIK.

There probably isnt much difference between the THD (total harmonic distortion) etc. between the SBlive and the RTL 892. If it was a 'early' model SBlive, I'd probably use the RTL892 myself, if its a 'late' model SBlive (5.1 or 24bit, not that the 24bit SBlives are even a SBlive really, they are actually a stripped down audigy) I'd possibly use the SBlive!.

Ohh, one last thing, if you want to get maximum possible loudness, the SBlive should be 'louder' than the RTL 892. .

Hi mreff555,

have you tried (does it allow you?) disabling the onboard one in BIOS?
then the OS will only see the SB..

Kind regards