I would like to try the jack method yet it wont start. Any ideas?

Did you follow the instructions on the Jack website about relinking your .asoundrc to use jack rather than alsa handlers?

I think there's also a daemon you can startup with a script using rc.local as well.

Make sure you setup /etc/modules.conf properly also.

Here's what I used as my jack daemon startup:

Use this website if needed for extra info
http://trac.jackaudio.org/