PulseAudio and USB sound.

[Gerhard Magnus]

On 09/28/2014 02:38 PM, R Kimber wrote:
> 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?  ;-)

Straightforward audio on Linux? 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky! I'm 
still waiting for somebody... somewhere... at the great IT help desk in 
the sky, or perhaps at the wilderness retreat of a wise old linux gnome 
here on Earth, or maybe even a genius at the Apple Store... can give a 
simple, coherent explanation of what pulseaudio actually does. In the 
meantime, remember that with Linux every little thing is an adventure!