WinXP+ASIO - Playing 192Khz Files as a Bit-Perfect stream

KiranPS

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In the previous post http://www.hifivision.com/computer-audio/42191-playing-192khz-files-bit-perfect-stream.html ,

I had listed the hardware setup for getting the SPDIF from the Motherboard to the DAC and using Linux to play a file.

In this post I assume you have seen the hardware portion of the previous post and here are the steps for software setup and playback in Windows XP.

1. Install the HD Audio Drivers for your motherboard. Most Probably it will be some realtek or Intel chip on the board. Mine was a Gigabyte Mother Board (E350N) and had Realtek chip. The Audio Driver can be downloaded from the Gigabyte site and was called mb_driver_audio_realtek_azalia.exe.


2. Install Foobar2000 from Download foobar2000 and optional components I used the 1.2.3 Version.

3. Download and install ASIO4all from ASIO4ALL - Universal ASIO Driver I used the 2.10 - English Version.


4. (Important Step) In the PC Click on the Brown Realtek Audio icon in the System tray and Select the "Audio I/O" tab , Click on the blue round button next to the Digital Label.

5. Select "192Khz" and "Select Output Digital Audio Source". Click OK and Save the settings.

6. Open Foobar2000, Select Main Menu -> Library -> Configure , This should open up the Preferences dialog.

7. Goto Playback -> Output -> ASIO, you will see ASIO4all V2 , select that and select apply.

8. This will prompt for foobar2000 restart, once you restart you are all set.

9. When you play a 192Khz file hopefully your DAC will get the original bitperfect stream.


For me when I played 192Khz FLAC, I did hear a clear improvement in sound quality from the standard CD ripped FLAC. I will have to do a lot more critical listening to tell the difference between 96Khz and 192Khz.


In the next post I will write post the steps for Windows 7 with ASIO / WASAPI.

The following is the screen shot of the setup.

https://sites.google.com/site/simplenasproject/_/rsrc/1363712563684/home/XP_ASIO.PNG
 
Hi,
kiran thank you for your useful research.
when i come back home i may need your support for my laptop based
music setup- commissioning activity.
 
Kiran - core Windows resampling (upsampling) or using an onboard sound card to do the same is going to result in minimal, if any, improvement in actual sound.

There are different theories about whether upsampling a song actually helps in improving the sound.

But if you do have access to HD 24 bit 96 khz songs, nothing like it to bypass Windows audio mixer and use ASIO.

WASAPI is supposed to be better. Again as with all things technical there will be people claiming that XP with ASIO is better than Windows 7 with WASAPI :)
 
I tried the same setup in Windows 7, the drivers that came with the board took care of everything and when I played with foobar2000, the DAC displayed 192Khz. I did not even have to change the resolution in the settings panel. I guess for SPDIF out the resolution setting is bypassed by realtek driver.

So there is no special setup required for Win7.
 
I tried the same setup in Windows 7, the drivers that came with the board took care of everything and when I played with foobar2000, the DAC displayed 192Khz. I did not even have to change the resolution in the settings panel. I guess for SPDIF out the resolution setting is bypassed by realtek driver.

So there is no special setup required for Win7.

No special setup required if you use WASAPI.
 
I have windows 8 and foobar is having trouble playing to even start playback with ASIO4All V 2.13 the latest driver with ODAC. I have even setting the process priority to realtime using a utility from one of the forums but still no use, the playback does not start not even a sound and the timing slider sticks at 0:00. Foobar ASIO plugin is installed and I am able to select ASIO as output device. I do see that when I try to start the playback, the ASIO executable gets called and remains visible at taskbar but yet no sound.

Has anyone faced similar problem with Windows 8 and ASIO?
 
that right, I guess for SPDIF out the resolution setting is bypassed by realtek driver.
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