Originally Posted by EliasGwinn
5Kurt,
From our experiences, native drivers are bit transparent for 16-bit only (DAC1 USB not included...it is transparent at 24-bit). This is dangerous even when playing 16-bit files because volume adjustments in software, etc result in 24-bit words due to division. On the contrary, we rarely achieved bit-transparency with devices using custom drivers. But they were capable of 24-bit. The custom-driver devices, though not transparent, did not result in significant distortion. But, at the same time, all the bits are not making it through ok.
The ideal solution would be a 24-bit native solution...hence our design goal.
Elias, thank you very much for the answers.
I got one last question. How is Vista compared to WinXp sonically with DAC-1. Is it worth the upgrade or shall we stick with XP?