[kschul2]

Getting a laptop soon and I was wondering if it's possible to get bit perfect output out of Foobar? I'll be using a Micro DAC with it.

 

[dwc]

depends on the sound hardware and drivers in the laptop

 

[Omnis]

still, it's not very hard to get great sound out of foobar.

 

[kschul2]

What would it depend on? I'd have to bypass kmixer right? I'm trying to decide on an Apple or Windows based laptop so I'm trying to see which one would have better SQ for me (if either)...

 

[uzziah]

i assume we're talking a USB dac, yes?

just use kernal streaming or ASIO and you'll be styling.

 

[t10]

While we are at it, anyone have any WAV DTS tracks laying around? I wanna test out a few cards if they are bitperfect.

 

[kschul2]

Yes I'm talking about Headroom's Micro DAC which uses USB input. So I'd be able to get bit perfect output using kernel or ASIO to it?

 

[Helter Skelter]

You should be able to, yes.

 

[laevi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by t10 While we are at it, anyone have any WAV DTS tracks laying around? I wanna test out a few cards if they are bitperfect.

I came across the site below from some forum. (I don't recall which.) I haven't tested the files offered there, so I have no idea if they work.

http://www.sr.se/multikanal/english/e_index.stm

 

[erikzen]

I have the Overture and I've been fooling around with trying to get ASIO and kernel streaming working. I'm by no means an expert at foobar but I was not able to do it with the ks or asio plugins. With ks I keep getting error messages and no music will play. With the asio plugin, foobar will not recognize my device.

I then tried ASIO4ALL, which, from what I'm told, is actually using kernal streaming. I can tell that this does work because I can no longer hear windows sounds while music is playing (a big plus in and of itself) but I honestly don't hear a difference in sound quality between using direct sound and using ASIO4ALL. This could either mean that a)I don't have it set up correctly, b)the Overture (Micro DAC) using the USB driver is already bit perfect, or c) my ears and/or equipment are not good enough to hear the difference.

 

[nspindel]

Anyone ever get anywhere with this? I have foobar with the Micro Dac, and I can't seem to get Kernel Streaming working with Foobar. I haven't tried ASIO yet, but this thread suggests there was no luck there either. Wondering if I should give up on USB and get a pcmcia sound card with an optical out?

 

[CSMV]

I tried precisely same thing with my MicroDAC, and all I got
after hours and days of struggling was a massive headache.

I finally gave up and went optical - THEN I knew where my $270 went.

Optical input sounds simply gorgeous. I spent $50 on the cable for my
stupidity and impatience and yet I still think it was worth every penny.

 

[nspindel]

Well, it wouldn't just be the $50 for the cable. For the laptop, I'll need a pcmcia with an optical out, which looks like about $100, so total of $150...

If I could get kernel streaming or asio to work, this would save me a lot of $$$.....

 

[erikzen]

Do you really think optical out is going to sound better than USB? Not to degrade the Micro DAC, but it's not really high end. I think it will sound just as good using USB. CSMV, do you hear a difference between USB and optical|

 

[nspindel]

What I hear through the usb is popping/clicking sounds sometimes, that appear to be correllated to screen events on the pc - click the mouse, get a pop. My whole reason for wanting an external dac was to get the analog circuitry out of the noisy pc. I never had a problem with my old dac, using the optical spdif out. But this usb is giving me a whole new kind of digital noise, which i suspect is introduced by this kmixer thing that all this kernel streaming/asio stuff is supposed to bypass. But this is what I can't get to work...