M-audio/jaguar Bug, jag - 1 step forward, 2 steps backward Options

[BoomBoom]

i thought i would post this in case anyone else is experiencing the same woeful state of affairs.
this is from an email i sent m-audio about problems with my brand new midiman audiophile 2496 card:

computer: Apple
model: G4 533 MP
chipset:
cpu type: PPC
cpu speed: 533 x 2
ram: 1.5 Ghz
gfx card: Radeon 8500 Mac edition
os: Mac OS 10.2.1 server
service:

Midiman products used: Audiophile 2496
When did it start? soon after installation
Services or Updgrades? no
The Problem:from time to time, the sound starts to deteriorate and rapidly gets worse. as soon as i stop the audio (in this case iTunes 3.0.1) and restart, its ok.

The reply i got today:

"We are working with Apple to pinpoint exactly what the issue is with the degradation of audio in Jaguar. This is apparently a problem several audio vendors are experiencing. Once we can get to the bottom, we will post a fix on our site. In the meantime, I would strongly recommend using OS 10.1.5 or OS 9.2 until there is a fix."

hmmmm....uninstall jag. great...

[BusError]

USB sound should be safe, it's very little data after all. I've been using an EZbus in 2*48kHz@24 for a few months now and it works fine.

The issue witht he M-Audio (and my own devices) are that they are considerably more powerful - they have many more concurent channels - and apaprelty OSX is quite good with the timing as long as he does'nt have to carry the grocery store bags.

I frankly questionned the whole lower level of CoreAudio to some apple engineers recently, and the answer I got was "yeah but look, USB sound works quite well" however they advertise "Hundreds of sound channels via firewire" without even having TESTED anything like that. They test with two stupid channels over USB and declare that 'scalable'