[DotChannel]

I have been doing extensive research on Linux for audio usage. I have found that 64 Studio (generally used as a pro audio OS) has the least audio latency out of all the other distros. But what I want to know is, is it better than OS X? Has anyone ever compared the two? I also want to know which of the OS have better encoding and decoding.
 
And what music player to use? Which music player has the best audio quality? I'm starting to lean more towards GMusicBrowser.
 
 

 

[Adda]

Bit perfect is bit perfect, both OS'es should sound the same.
Linux has the advantage of flexibility like no other OS in existence, OSX is so easy to use even a donkey could do so.
So it's a matter of preference, not sound quality.

 

[MaciekN]

Bitperfect is not the only criteria, OP is right about latency having main impact on SQ from a computer.
Consider windows vista/7 with xxhighend player, you can control the latency to very low levels. Generally this player was build by an audio enthusiast with proper PC knowledge, you can download a demo version to hear what it's worth. It's probably the best sounding option if you don't want to dig deep into your system yourself.

 

[Adda]

My AudioFire2 sounds exactly the same regardless of latency, could be due to native ASIO support maybe?
If you think it does affect the sound it all comes down to hardware support.
On Linux you'll probably want to use jack with realtime priority, with this you can achieve very low latencies, but it'll all depend on the hardware and drivers, just like on OSX.
 
Edit: For playing music on Linux using jack, you can try Audacious media player, it has jack output support.

 

[DotChannel]

That's awesome, because I have Windows Vista already. I might download that for the time being. Until I get my dear Linux. What would you recommend for Linux?
 
Quote:

Bitperfect is not the only criteria, OP is right about latency having main impact on SQ from a computer.
Consider windows vista/7 with xxhighend player, you can control the latency to very low levels. Generally this player was build by an audio enthusiast with proper PC knowledge, you can download a demo version to hear what it's worth. It's probably the best sounding option if you don't want to dig deep into your system yourself.

 

 

[MaciekN]

Can't recommend anything for Linux, never used it. But it shouldn't need any special player since you fiddle in the system anyway, right?