PulseAudio and USB sound.

[R Kimber]

Under 12.04LTS, the only way I could get Ubuntu to play
music through my DAC via USB was to disable PulseAudio, the default sound
system chosen by Ubuntu, and just use Alsa.

Two years later, with 14.04 and a new PC, this still seems to be the case.

Sometimes PulseAudio Volume Control recognises the DAC and sometimes it
doesn't. When it does it seems to expect an s/pdif connection.  The whole
thing seems a mess, and given that USB DACs have been around for quite some
time it's odd that it's still a mess.  It's not clear to me what advantage
PulseAudio offers. Is there a solution to this, or must I disable PulseAudio
yet again?

I find this sort of issue very frustrating, and I'm suprised that no one
offers a commercial support service on a per-problem basis.  I'd certainly
pay (a reasonable amount of) money for a solution if there is one.  Maybe
it can't be solved.  Maybe PulseAudio is rubbish, I don't know.

Years ago, it was printers that were a real pain to set up, now they're
straighforward and it's audio that is a real pain.  Perhaps one day audio
will be straightforward - but will I live that long?  ;-)

- Richard.
-- 
Richard Kimber