PreSonus Studio 26c

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gimmeapill
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PreSonus Studio 26c

Post by gimmeapill »

Hi all,

Since there doesn't seem to be much compatibility information available, I just wanted to report that this interface works out of the box on Arch Linux (as of kernel 5.11.16):

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I bought it to replace my Scarlett 2i2 (first gen) whose input preamps are simply dying, and the first impression is very good.
The subjective sound quality is higher, and no additional software is needed: all the controls are accessible from the front panel.
I'll post some latency measurements when time allows, but so far so good :D
gimmeapill
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Re: PreSonus Studio 26c

Post by gimmeapill »

Here's a quick latency test with jack_iodelay & jack2 (Synchronous mode), using the supplied USB type C cable, the stock Arch kernel with threadirqs and the performance governor:

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configuring for 96000Hz, period = 64 frames (0.7 ms), buffer = 4 periods
   551.224 frames      5.742 ms total roundtrip latency
	extra loopback latency: 295 frames
	use 147 for the backend arguments -I and -O

configuring for 96000Hz, period = 128 frames (1.3 ms), buffer = 2 periods
   610.224 frames      6.356 ms total roundtrip latency
	extra loopback latency: 354 frames
	use 177 for the backend arguments -I and -O
~6 ms round trip latency is I think pretty good for anything I need to do.
My notebook unfortunately doesn't perform very well at low latencies even though this is a new machine (Ryzen 2). I can't seem to be able to go lower than 96K x64 frames x4 buffers.
I don't really need it, but this is kind of frustrating when my 8y old previous machine was able to go down to 32 frames...
At least the sound card is a nice improvement - its easy to recommend that one :wink:
merlyn
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Re: PreSonus Studio 26c

Post by merlyn »

I recently set up a new system with a Ryzen 3900x. It can do low latencies. I have tweaked quite a lot of stuff and unfortunately it wasn't very scientific -- I'm not sure what did what. :)

Something I did notice was that the performance governor doesn't work the same way with a Ryzen chip. There's this thing 'Precision Boost Overdrive' which is dynamic overclocking.

On my chip the base clock is 3.8GHz and the boost is up to 4.6GHz although I have never seen 4.6. Without the governor set to performance the chip ran at 3.2Ghz, boosting up when needed. With the governor set to performance it ran at 3.8 and boosted up. Of course we just want to run it flat out all the time. :)

I used these kernel options :

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nowatchdog processor.max_cstates=1 idle=poll powersave=off mitigations=off 
I think idle=poll and powersave=off do the same thing. I have a good cooler in anticipation of this sort of thing. I don't know how they will work on a laptop -- it might get too hot.
gimmeapill
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Re: PreSonus Studio 26c

Post by gimmeapill »

The system itself is ok, it has an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U and performs generally very well.
Audio tuning is also done, although I didn't go as far as wiping out all energy saving features - since I also do normal notebook stuff with it ;-)
I have a strong suspicion that the bottleneck is the usb bus itself since I can reach lower latencies with the integrated audio interface.
It is not duplex so I don't have any usage for it, but it can do without problem 96000Hz*32*3 (~1ms)
I'm happy with what I have now. My point was more that I cannot benchmark the sound card to its limits with that machine, although I'm quite confident it can do better than ~6ms round trip.
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