[gforces]

I am using an Echo Mia 'prosumer ' sound card with KRK Rokit 5 studio monitors and the sound quality is dreadful. Now, this is not an XBMC issue per se because the audio sounds pretty poor with every audio application. I am using the default audio framework in Ubuntu.

I have a dual boot setup with windows 7 and the sound is far superior. Does anyone have any opinions on the comparative merits of the sound quality between Windows and Linux? Any tips on improving the quality on the Linux platform in general or for XBMC in particular? I would be willing to switch soundcard if need be. I know the echo driver is reverse engineered and I suppose cards with open source drivers may well be superior.

I read a little recently and came across the ASIO framework where the audio application addresses the hardware directly, bypassing the OS intermediary sound interface. It's unclear as to whether this results in better sound quality, or just a reduction in latency which may be important in audio production apps. Any opinion on this would be appreciated.

I am neither a Linux guru nor into audio production. I have this setup as it seems to yield better sound than consumer grade speakers/soundcards.

Any help/advice/opinions/corrections would be greatly appreciated.

(I realize the idea of 'better sound' is highly subjective. And I have no desire to get involved in any kind of flame war. I find both OS's excel in different areas. I have a need to use this Linux install for learning purposes and was hoping to be able to run XBMC on it for entertainment.)

Thanks in advance.