I've been using Slackware for some time now for many things. However, I am pretty much a newbie at dealing w/streaming or digital audio transfer, say, from my machine to a dac via usb. I would appreciate some education and direction as to how I get things up and running, as well as any advice on inexpensive Linux friendly hardware to do the job. any assistance is appreciated. Thank you for your time and effort.

tincat2

Audio to a dac has to be digital. Hdmi can give digital audio. I had to resample it to get analogue back in the day. You would want an .alsarc or whatever the config file is.

Why do you want a dac? The soundcard DSP surely beats any dac you will run. Somebody else has done all the thinking.

I can recommend "Signstek HIFI USB to Coaxial S/PDIF Converter" which should run you a little over 20 dollars. On -current, plug it into USB and it provides both S/PDIF coax and Toslink optical outputs. I use S/PDIF to my receiver. Works great using mocp to play back DTS encoded flac files which are properly decoded by the receiver into multi-channel output.

And yes, the sound quality from this is a HUGE step up from taking the analog output from the source machine (which is a netbook). Worth every penny of the $20. The analog outputs are probably also going to sound a lot better than most soundcard output, being a Burr-Brown derived D/A design.

Haven't tested any of this on 14.1's ALSA audio environment, so I'm not sure it will work there. I think it will though.

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Thank both of you for your replies(business kid and volkerdi). My situation is that I have wav files(ripped cds) sitting in /home/dave/wav which I would like to play thru my home stereo(vintage therefore analogue). Seems to me that I would need some program to access and playlist these and then stream them out via usb. There may be hardware(Linux friendly) out there which would offer the functionality to do this as well as do the digital to analog conversion w/ an RCA output to the preamp in the music system. Like I said, I am a newbie in this context and will need an education. The computer itself is a refurbished Dell w/onboard sound which I would think could be much improved by an external approach.
Thanks again for any input here as I have already begun to learn from your responses.

Onboard audio chipsets are designed to be mainly one thing - cheap. You are correct that the quality available with standup cards and external DACs, not to mention the reduction in noise floor, is almost always superior to onboard. I'm not sure I understand why you think you need USB to send signal to your sound system. I have a semi-pro sound card that I use for DAW work as well as all other audio tasks and I simply use the analog Outs via quality shielded cable to my sound system. My card has both Phono Jacks and 1/4 inch balanced line outputs. My amplification is somewhat vintage, too, being analog and very potent. I have over 300 x 2 watts driving a 12 inch dual-coil sub-woofer, 150 watts x 2 for two 8 inch midrange drivers, and 75 watts x 2 for two time-aligned ribbon tweets. It's eargasmic.

Thanks enorbet, for your input here. I decided to go w/volkerdi's recommendation of the Signstek unit as a way to "jump in and get started". The device gives me usb digital input and rca analogue output. A little tinkering with the alsa(which now is shifted to PulseAudio in Slack, apparently) conf. gave me a clearly improved signal but at a low volume. I had been running my two homebrew speakers(I put together from some nice cherry and poplar boards plus two 6x9 alpine car speakers-they sound good for my purpose here) from the headphone out on the computer-not super loud, but enough. With the DAC interposed, not enough. The main system would be a long run to the preamp, so, I'm thinking a nice little amp in line to the 6x9's. Meanwhile, I brought out of retirement a Panasonic RX-DS45 boombox(top of the line in the early 90's). The DS45 has an aux input and I had forgotten how good it can sound, though placement to maximize sound appreciation is a problem.
Your own audio system appears to be potent, as you say, and well thought out-triamped(?) and ribbon tweeters-some very nice sound available to you. I have cobbled some stuff(Citation 12, Soundcraftsmen, JBL and Wharfedale) together which works for me- my listening has not been as much a part of my life w/ the decline and availability of FM, but I still want it when I want it, so i am going to get a digital setup operational for convenience.
Again, Thanks to all(business kid got me under the hood on Slack and volkerdi got me to some hardware which seems to be the ticket for now, while enorbet has given me food for thought). I
will continue and see how it comes out.

Hey tincat2 that's an impressively wide variety list of audio hardware manufacturers so it seems you have a mind/ear for audio. I would imagine you will be happy with the Signstek. I looked it up and found a high percentage of solid customer reviews. One, on Amazon, was quite lengthy detailing a very sweet "POOGE" mod upgrading all the capacitors and gave a decent comparison review. He stated that there are many variations available, that the design was originally by Muse and has a whole flock of copycats. The Signstek was mentioned to be "batter than it has any right to be" just as stock and the mod catapulted it into near audiophile territory, of course depending a lot on what it is coupled with but most impressively noted that even cheap PC speakers then exhibited a real Soundstage. That's some high praise.

My system is a cobbled mongrel, too. The dual coil 12" EVID subwoofer used to be made by ElectroVoice, is no longer made and I just had one left over from a club install so I used it. It's overkill for an office/bedroom application but it surely is solid .

The mids and highs are in a homebrew time-aligned cabinet and built down to a price and convenient size. The paper 8 inch drivers are based on a Bose design, whose systems I tend to dislike, but they used fairly flat drivers so the could EQ the bejeezus out of them to mimic real full range speakers with a lot of "punch". They do a handsome job at what they actually are - midrange speakers.

The Ribbon Tweets are just huge good luck. I bought them from MCM electronics parts supply house (who has since been adopted by Newark) almost 30 years ago and they were around 90 bucks each back then when ribbons were rare and extremely expensive. Now they are rather commonplace for around 100 bucks and possibly better quality than mine due to advances made in alloys. I'm driving the Ribbons with an ancient modified Dynaco Tube amp of more than twice their rated power for the combination of extreme clean headroom (watts don't usually kill tweets... distortion does) and the transformer isolation. I am constantly amazed that they have no discernible degradation from countless thousands of hours of such use. Oddly it is the paper mid drivers that aren't as tight as they used to be but still sound pretty great possibly because of the very high crossover frequency I use for the subs at 100Hz. Minimizing how much bottom the mids have to deliver seems to have treated them rather kindly.

These days, if I had to ever replace the mids/highs (that sub will never die) I'd probably just go with EV ELX-200-10s since they couple smoothly with the sub and can be quickly setup for a party or a band PA and do a very decent job for small venues. Since I don't do Live Sound but rarely anymore I'd possibly be seduced by these for reasonable price and pretty awesome sound.

--- Klipsch Home reference ---

I'm sure my system setups, both current and dream list, seems extreme overkill to many but I no longer get Cable TV and my sound system must handle a SmartTV as well as my PC AND be critical enough for semi-pro DAW work. So in effect one system handles Movies, Music, and Gaming and to say it's immersive in all three is an understatement

I've often considered getting something of the quality of a serious Hammerfall sound card but I'm so pleased with this one ...

http://www.esi-audio.com/products/julia/

that over a period of going on 10 years I've bought several of them. I use four of them for expanded DAW work in my dedicated DAW box reserved these days for the more serious stuff and had to get a PCI Express version for this newer box.

I'm writing this largely because my condition of Home Entertainment where the PC and/or SmartTV are default is a growing situation and audio can really make it come alive. Don't be satisfied with puny little 2 inch speakers and 10 watts for Movies, Music and Gaming. The difference is astounding even with just a lousy 200 buck system.


and of course, here's a Good Luck vibe sent your way, tincat2.

Thanks again, enorbet, for your thoughts and encouragement. I agree w/you on the sound card as the best solution here, but current economics and the computer I am using don't make that suitable right now. Over the years I have put together(built, if you will) 3 computers according to my preferences at the time. All are now kaput or obsolete(a rapid process, as I'm sure you have observed). Currently I have a refurbed Dell which offers not much in connectivity options, so I went w/usb. No toslink and no coax. It just seems like the usb would be workable w/ what I have available to me That said, the boombox positioning problem led me to remember and drag out an old Pioneer Quadrilizer amp. I rigged that and once again have my Alpine 6x9's back w/some volume. First thing, I must tout the virtues of the Signstek unit. I haven't run across many 25 buck improvements of that order in my tinkering. Second, of course, was the realization that I need a sub to complement the Alpines-lucky you w/that fine ElectroVoice. But wait, in my small shed/shop I have a Yamaha outfit w/a powered matching sub. Looks like that will be coming in here and the boombox(good sound and excellent when placed well) will go out there for a possible win/win.

I still must work out some Linux issues since I only get sound through XMMS playing my stored wav files. No notification or Web audio(and I do like the Japanese audiophile guys on YouTube),so I'll have to get back under the hood on that once the hardware shift is done. I notice the beginnings of the old "This is good, but I can get better" temptation arising in me. That's a never ending quest, but I'll see. By the way, I may have Slack 14.2 on here rather than 14.1. I've bought the release sets 2 or 3 times and I have downloaded several releases but I don't remember which was the last- I try to keep up, so it's probably 14.2. Patrick Volkering(Thank you, sir) does a great job putting out the primo Linux distro out there.

A separate word here concerning my interest in music despite the fact that I can't sing or play a note. I'm a transplant from the DC area and when I was there after college I got a roommate who was running a concert promotion company. I became his gofer of all trades and was involved in many shows large and small in the early seventies. Some of those events might have been in your neck of the woods(Fairfax theater for Foghat and Slade, and George Mason for Mountain-Leslie West). I was around a lot of what it took to produce good live music and I enjoy it done well.

Take care and I will report as my energy level permits me to get these alterations done along with the other necessary life things.