I own a terratec 24/96 card, which sort of works in ALSA as ICE1712
[Envy24] (rev 02) under stock linux 10.0. Alas, emphasis is on "sort
of." A variety of programs, such as the realaudio player, do not
really work. (Used to, but no longer. now sounds like mickey mouse.)
some other programs also like to crash. the kde mixer fails, so I
have no easy volume control, even in xmms. I have pretty much had it
with fiddling with this sort-of-sound stuff. (I also believe that the
onboard ADI1980 from my Asus k8v MB is not supported.)

I really want a decent sounding card with low noise level for music,
not for gaming. Is there any modern, affordable (~$100) sound card
that is highly recommended, where everything really works under ALSA?
I could even do USB, if it were well supported, and reasonably
plug-and-play, preferably working without soaking up too much bus and
cpu time.

the ALSA website has tons of manufacturers, but no clear
recommendations---and many of the sound cards are ancient. help!!!

sincerely, /iaw