Hi buddies,
I've been searching through HA for topic about soundcard advice but I did not find details about hardware mixing abilities. I use Linux and software mixing is quite a pain in the butt (swmix sucks). I currently own a M-Audio revolution 7.1 that does not have any kind of hardware mixing. So, do you have any suggestion in the 100€ to 150€ range?
Chaintech AV710 should be a no go because it has the same chipset as my soundcard and it probably does not have hardware mixing.
Do not bother verifying if it is linux compatible, I'll check myself.

RME's HDSP Line (9632 & 9652) sound cards feature TotalMix 512 channel 40 bit resolution hardware mixer. Also feature Digicheck hardware Peak and RMS metering and hardware ASIO. All these features come at a price as this requires a high end DSP chip. Another good alternative is Lynx Two soundcard. Both are very good at multi-channel hardware mixing with low latency.

The Echo Mia has four virtual outputs that feed the line out jacks via a mixer chip. The M-Audio Audiophile's mixer chip can route a number of different program outputs to its outputs jacks. It is supposed to have 'multclient' drivers which possibly means it will support different programs sending it data, all at the same time. What do you want to do? This is kind of an over-riding concern as to what device might accomplish the feat.

Thanks for your precious help. I'll probably settle for a Delta Audiophile 24/96, as it seems that every M-Audio Delta soundcard has hardware mixing.

Thank you for mentioning that if I find a soundcard that has hardware mixing I will add it to the wiki. A few other people who have asked questions on the forum have asked about this and I am curious myself. I know the M-Audio Revo 7.1 drivers are supported under ALSA, so you are all set there. I think Chaintech maybe to so I am not sure.

All cards marked with (3) here(in the "notes" column) support hardware mixing in Linux, according to the ALSA-devs.