PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

AmigaOne X5000 platform specific issues.
Roland
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PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by Roland »

What choises are there, if one needs a PCI-e (not legacy PCI) soundcard which would work _flawlessly_ both with AmigaOS and Linux drivers?

I have currently an Envy24HT PCI-e card, and the sound quality is unacceptably bad with OS4.1/Enhancer software (e.g. in human speak ordinary 's' sound comes out as 'shshrr'!) and it does not work at all with Linux (long known but never fixed issue). With MOS 3.12 the sound quality is good, though, so the card itself is ok - issues with OS4.1 are only due to software.

I have also a CMI8738 PCI-e card, but the 'bridge' chip is rev. 01, so it is useless with AmigaOS and MOS. I have not been able to find a card with a newer revision bridge.
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Skateman
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Re: PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by Skateman »

Hi,

I have an Envy Based PCI card in my X5000. (M-Audio Revolution 5.1) and the sound is great! in both OS4 and Linux.

Does it need to be a PCI-E card? There are still nice secondhand cards to be found but PCI based.
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Roland
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Re: PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by Roland »

Skateman wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:54 pm Does it need to be a PCI-E card? There are still nice secondhand cards to be found but PCI based.
Yes, as I do not have free PCI connectors...
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Skateman
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Re: PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by Skateman »

Ok, i guess the only (new and supported) cards to be found are the CMI based card when you need PCI-X1

If you have a PCI ethernet card you could get rid of that since the onboard X5000 adapter works on all OSes...
Or get a PCIx1 ethernet adapter and free up a PCI slot.
AmigaOne X5000 -> 2GHz / 16GB RAM / Radeon RX 570 / Radeon X1950 / M-Audio 5.1 -> AmigaOS / Linux
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msalcedo
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Re: PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by msalcedo »

This brings up the question of ..

Does the user know of this option to use the onboard ethernet device?
Does this user have the "newer driver" from the Enhancer Pak?

Also what other pci cards are in use?

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Roland
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Re: PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by Roland »

Skateman wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:53 pm If you have a PCI ethernet card you could get rid of that since the onboard X5000 adapter works on all OSes...
No, the onboard adapter does not yet work properly with Linux, at least in all machines... I, as well as some other X5000 users, have to use the unplug/replug trick with it, and until that is fixed I will not abandon the ethernet card!-)
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Re: PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by nbache »

Roland wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:58 pmI have currently an Envy24HT PCI-e card, and the sound quality is unacceptably bad with OS4.1/Enhancer software
Before you conclude anything, please try the card with OS4's native audio (i.e. without the third-party Enhancer stuff).

Best regards,

Niels
Roland
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Re: PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by Roland »

nbache wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 10:52 pm Before you conclude anything, please try the card with OS4's native audio (i.e. without the third-party Enhancer stuff).
Good piece of advice... But I cannot anymore remember exactly what components the Enhancer has replaced. Was there anything else than the 'Audio Prefs'? Were there also drivers...?
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Re: PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by Roland »

nbache wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 10:52 pm Before you conclude anything, please try the card with OS4's native audio (i.e. without the third-party Enhancer stuff).
Good piece of advice... But I cannot anymore remember exactly what components the Enhancer has replaced. Was there anything else than the 'Sound' from prefs? Were there also drivers...?
---
Without better knowledge, I now removed the 'Sound' from Sys:prefs and the respective 'sound.prefs' file from envarchive/sys. Then restored 'AHI' to to Sys:prefs, and saved the settings from it ('ahi.prefs' in envarchive/sys). Rebooted... But not any improvement in sound quality, still the same disturbances... So the problem was not in Enhancer software, unless there is some other component which should be removed, too.
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Re: PCI-e soundcards for X5000?

Post by nbache »

Roland wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2020 11:01 am
nbache wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 10:52 pm Before you conclude anything, please try the card with OS4's native audio (i.e. without the third-party Enhancer stuff).
Good piece of advice... But I cannot anymore remember exactly what components the Enhancer has replaced. Was there anything else than the 'Sound' from prefs? Were there also drivers...?
Sorry, don't know. I have always avoided installing anything from Enhancer that I didn't specifically need (e.g. for my translation work). And especially things that overwrite the original OS4 components.

If I were you, I'd create another boot partition and install OS4 on it without adding the Enhancer, so you can always boot that and check in cases like this.

Best regards,

Niels
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