Sound system in Lenny.How can I improve performance-quality?Is it possible?

[Luis Maceira <luis_a_maceira@yahoo.com>]

My computer has an Apple PowerMac Burgundy sound card,which supports
16 bits and 44.1 kHz.In MacOS9.2.2 performs quite well,its output has
3D-Stereo of SRS Labs.With headphones a 20% volume is enough for good
stereo sound.

The more recent Lenny is much more stable in terms of the sound system,8
months ago I had a Lenny version in which sound went down every minute,and
needed alsaconf script to be run again and again to put it up and working.

However,the VOLUME(hardly I see difference between 40% volume,and 80%
volume-the speaker image only shows the same 2 marks value for 40% and 80%) and quality are far behind what I have in MacOS9.2.2.,the sound is clear etc.,but I hardly could call it stereo sound.Note: I used KsCD to play CDs and experiment,change volume settings.

Trying to install alsa-utils,to have access to alsamixergui I knew that
linux-sound-base,alsa-base were not installed,so is it possible to
improve sound with this sound card in Linux,or is it Linux that does
not support 3D-Stereo with this sound card? Can I improve it anyway?
I want to use VoIP phone calls with the best sound possible.

Note: In KDE control center I changed the settings to 16 bit sound and
44.1 kHz but no improvements.


                             Thanks.