LInux Kernel grieving...

Sometimes kernel-development happens at the pace of glacial advance... Here's an example:

This kernel patch, which makes a FastTrack Pro audio interface work in 24bit/96khz mode was already floating around in different forms about the time I bought this device in 2007, the existence of this patch  made me think that it will be well-supported soon, and it was one of the main reasons why I had chosen this hardware in the first place.

But as it never found its way into the regular ALSA, despite being put into bug-/feature-reports, a few wikis about audio under Linux and mailed to the alsa-maintainers, I had given up on ever seeing it merged into the mainline kernel.

But the unbelievable thing has happened: I just noticed that it has indeed found its way into the Linux kernel about 11 months ago.

Note to self: Put this in /etc/modprobe.d/my-alsa-config.conf:

options snd_usb_audio index=1 vid=0x0763 pid=0x2012 device_setup=0x09

The loundspeaker, it hums!

I’m currently on a shopping-spree on eBay. There are certain categories of slightly outdated equipment that frequently contain amazing things almost for free… The latest evidence for this is presented below.

When sitting in my bureau/lab/workshop in the basement, I usually listen to music on small passive loudspeakers fed by a tiny 2x 22W amplifier, and I was always annoyed that sound had almost no bass… Those times are over now, or so it seems.

I recently acquired a 12” Subwoofer basically for free on the ‘bay and now finally had the time to close the big hole left from the missing active amplifier and crossover module with a piece of MDF. The good thing is that mechanically the subwoofer is absolutely pristine, short of a very small bent on the metal front grill.

(the cover will be painted black and supplied with a proper Speakon connector soon, maybe in 2015 )

Fed from a Delta44 Soundcard (ebay, 1€) through a dual LM3886 amplifier module (bought, again, for almost no money from ‘bay in 2009…) and crossover functionality supplied by Francois Bourdon’s excellent crossover plugin (when listening to music on Windows) everything sounds absolutely stunning. I’ll try the corresponding recipe for pulseaudio soon.

(LM3886 “Gainclone” Amplifier)

Holidays (again)

Holidays, and unfortunately picasaweb does not allow me to upload these panoramic pictures :-(, so off to ipernity it goes...

Holidays…

(artefact on the upper left is due to me adding a “filler” photo shot from a slightly different position…)