Best OS for Audio

I'm not a computer engineer and I can't answer that question with confidence, but isn't the OS simply supplying digital signals to the DAC? 0s and 1s are not going to be affected by the OS. but the music software can affect the sound if it applies a default EQ setting or "sound enhancements" (iTunes has such an option) feel free to correct me if I'm wrong 

Properly setup (proper driver and software player), between Linux (my personal choice) and Windows 7 there is no clear winner for best sound quality. They are both equally good IMO. As the previous poster noted, as long as the OS transmits the digital bits properly (bit perfect) to your DAC, that's pretty much all you need. I haven't touched an Apple since the earliest Apple's with little add-on cassette drives to load programs (guess that pretty much dates me ), but from everything I've read about OS X (which is combination of NeXTSTEP and Unix/BSD ) it's just as good as the other two. http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/OperatingSystem.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Rizlaw - 7/25/11 at 4:41pm

Avanced user - Linux

Casual user - Windows

Atechnical user with $$ - OSX

 

Yes, because all Mac users are tech-illiterate. Did you know most of the engineers at NASA use Macs? They're also pretty popular at CERN. And those guys are definitely tech-illiterates, what with their building the LHC. ;)

 

As already said, the root OS makes very little difference. OS X has CoreAudio which does a great job processing audio and converting it, but the mixer the OS uses is kind of crap, just like every other built-in software mixer.

 

The only advantages come in available software. There are some decent ones for Mac but Windows has a much bigger list of audiophile-grade media players. I don't have nearly enough experience with Linux to judge it. I've always found it rather interesting but it doesn't have certain programs I require so I could never do more than play with it a little.

The modern OS is not a limiting factor for casual music listening anymore than it is for word processing.

DotChannel,

 

I use Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, but any Debian/Gnome based Linux should work equally well, as should any Red Hat Linux variant using RPM. To the three media players I've mentioned in the setup link below, you can add:

 

Gmusicbrowser at http://gmusicbrowser.org/

Clementine at http://code.google.com/p/clementine-player/downloads/list

 

I believe both of the above are in the Ubuntu repositories as well (but not necessarily the most recent versions depending on the distro version of Linux you select). All of these players are designed for the "Gnome" desktop. I'm not sure how well they would work in "KDE".

 

As for proper setup, I believe that I've posted this answer twice in different posts, but my latest one is here at  http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/561961/bit-perfect-audio-from-linux#post_7596268

 

 

Oh no, a mac fanboy ...

Macs are expensive, amarra (and other stuff like that - spatial comes to mind) is even more expensive.

If you have the money AND you can't do it yourself, they're worth it.

But don't kid yourself, all they are doing for their thousands of euros is equalling a custom linux music server at BEST.

There are more reasons than you can't do it for yourself because I can build my own computers, have in the past, but I'm not getting into it with yet another PC fanboi who knows little and less about the platform. :P

What? Care to elaborate? Because I really couldn't follow where you were getting at.

Windows are for those who love to install & tweak drivers and what have you not. Been there done that. Converted to OSX 5 years ago. Never looked back. There is no best OS. It´s just preferences. I prefer OSX to get away from the hazzle and just play music. There are numerous programs for audio playback on OSX and many free programs as well.

 

Well said.

If you don't want to stuff around: Mac OS X. There are a number of programs available now which both play from memory and can use "Integer mode" which allows the program to interface directly with the hardware, bypassing Core Audio, with no more configuration than clicking in a checkbox.

 

I'm keen myself sometime to set up a Linux box with a kernel configured primarily for audio to see how it goes though, as I've read many reports of excellent results.

Linux OS - "Voyage Linux". Non graphical UI. Gotta be pretty tech savvy for it.

Windows - XP. One laptop I had, had it, and my main laptop now, has Win 7. I just think XP sounds better. 

OSX - OSX.. Can't comment. But I have heard that Amarra is really nice, but expensive, plus, I think most of the Macbook Pro's, if not all of the Mac products, have a SPDIF built in to the HP jack.

( yes, I know there are a bunch of Win 7 based laptops with SPDIF, I just wanted to point out the two pros I think Mac has going for it. ) 

 

Just my opinions.