Sound cards or DACs compatible with Linux (Mint)

[woox]

I'm on a Linux desktop  and I was looking for a sound card to buy, but I am being confused with what is and isn't compatible with the OS. I've searched and found older threads of people who had similar issues and the answers were basically all links to giant, incomprehensible lists of sound cards that are known to work with Linux, which is fine, but didn't really help me since these lists usually lacked literally all details but the name of the product (so details like price, specs etc I had to look up manually...) and for all I know may not have been updated in years.

I'm basically looking for a sound card within the $100-$150 bracket, doesn't matter if it's internal or external, that without a doubt is compatible with Linux. Also, I know I'm being a bit picky, but because of my location it's pretty difficult to find anything other than Asus, Creative and a brand named TerraTec (don't even know if it's good) cards... But if there's another brand that works with Linux please do let me know.

 

Edit: Just wanted to ask another question since we're at it... Are PCI-e cards completely out of the question?

[ricksteendam1]

30 minutes ago, woox said:

I'm on a Linux desktop  and I was looking for a sound card to buy, but I am being confused with what is and isn't compatible with the OS. I've searched and found older threads of people who had similar issues and the answers were basically all links to giant, incomprehensible lists of sound cards that are known to work with Linux, which is fine, but didn't really help me since these lists usually lacked literally all details but the name of the product (so details like price, specs etc I had to look up manually...) and for all I know may not have been updated in years.

I'm basically looking for a sound card within the $100-$150 bracket, doesn't matter if it's internal or external, that without a doubt is compatible with Linux. Also, I know I'm being a bit picky, but because of my location it's pretty difficult to find anything other than Asus, Creative and a brand named TerraTec (don't even know if it's good) cards... But if there's another brand that works with Linux please do let me know.

 

Edit: Just wanted to ask another question since we're at it... Are PCI-e cards completely out of the question?

no PCI-e-cards are still used. second you can just use windows drivers on Linux i believe 

(i have heard that this is a great sound card https://us.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blasterx-ae-5)

[woox]

3 minutes ago, ricksteendam1 said:

no PCI-e-cards are still used. second you can just use windows drivers on Linux i believe 

Windows drivers with Linux..? How would I go around doing that?

Does that mean I can basically use any sound card?

[ricksteendam1]

2 minutes ago, woox said:

Windows drivers with Linux..? How would I go around doing that

Does that mean I can basically use any sound card?

if you instal Linux you install almost every driver possible and if your drivers don't include you 9/10 can use windows drivers 

[Jdnoss1234]

Basically all USB based DAC are supported as USB Audio 2.0 is fully supported on Linux. As for PCI-e card support I am not sure as with most PCI-e add-on cards they tend to be hit and miss on different distros. External USB sound cards may also be better as you can get out of the noisy environment of the PC case.

[KaminKevCrew]

33 minutes ago, Jdnoss1234 said:

Basically all USB based DAC are supported as USB Audio 2.0 is fully supported on Linux. As for PCI-e card support I am not sure as with most PCI-e add-on cards they tend to be hit and miss on different distros. External USB sound cards may also be better as you can get out of the noisy environment of the PC case.

Exactly this. It would be much better for OP to just buy an external one, as just about every USB based DAC on the market will fully support just about any version of linux, as pretty much all of them support USB audio v1, and v2.

[woox]

38 minutes ago, Jdnoss1234 said:

Basically all USB based DAC are supported as USB Audio 2.0 is fully supported on Linux. As for PCI-e card support I am not sure as with most PCI-e add-on cards they tend to be hit and miss on different distros. External USB sound cards may also be better as you can get out of the noisy environment of the PC case.

 

3 minutes ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Exactly this. It would be much better for OP to just buy an external one, as just about every USB based DAC on the market will fully support just about any version of linux, as pretty much all of them support USB audio v1, and v2.

I was looking at the Asus xonar u7. So something like that should work right? It even mentions it in the Asus website that the card supports USB 1.0 and USB 2.0.

Only mentions Windows and Mac on the OS section though, which is what scares me.

[KaminKevCrew]

22 minutes ago, woox said:

 

I was looking at the Asus xonar u7. So something like that should work right? It even mentions it in the Asus website that the card supports USB 1.0 and USB 2.0.

Only mentions Windows and Mac on the OS section though, which is what scares me.

It works on Mint 16, according to this thread: https://askubuntu.com/questions/401591/is-asus-xonar-u7-supported

 

That being said, I would personally forgo that, and get something like the Schiit Fulla 2, or similar as it's driverless and will be completely painless to use on any computer you'll own now or in the future.