FreeBSD and hi-fi audio setup: bit-perfect, equalizer, real-time

A complete guide to configuring FreeBSD as an audiophile audio server: setting up system and audio subsystem parameters, real-time operation, bit-perfect signal processing, and the best methods for enabling and parameterising the system graphic equalizer (equalizer) and high-quality audio equalization with FFmpeg filters. Linux users will also find useful information, especially in the context of configuring and personalising the MPD player and filters.
↫ Marcin Szewczyk-Wilgan

FreeBSD is a much more capable desktop and workstation operating system than it gets credit for, especially with the Linux world sucking all the air out of the room, but you do often need to do a little more and dive a little deeper into the operating system to get it to do what you want. In the case of audio, Szewczyk-Wilgan explains that he thinks it’s even ahead of Linux, due to being able to “precisely track the parameters of the audio device along with the system kernel parameters and modify them”, as well as FreeBSD having better support for real-time operation.

This guide is an incredibly detailed explanation of which options and configurations you should use in FreeBSD to turn it into an audio server. This clearly isn’t for everyone, and I assume most audio experts won’t be considering FreeBSD, but what this article demonstrates is that it’s very, very much possible to do so.