[DukeTogo]

by "tabbed playlists" you are referring to their new "Columns UI" option?

 

[Halbyrd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DukeTogo There is also a generic ASIO device which maybe can help you if you want it... I have no idea, not played with it: http://michael.tippach.bei.t-online....all/intro.html

Um, according to the text on the ASIO4All site, the t-online.de address will stop working sometime soon, so best to link to the "proper" URL: http://www.asio4all.com/

You'll also need the Foobar2000 ASIO Plugin to get it working. There are several different versions, choose them based on your processor:

Pentium II and older: normal version
Pentium III or Athlon: SSE/MMX version
Pentium IV (Northwood) or Athlon64: SSE2 version
Pentium IV (Prescott): SSE3 version

Just pick the appropriate one, drop it into your foobar2000\components folder, and restart foobar. Then, from output preferences, choose ASIO4All as your output device, set output format to "24-bit padded to 32-bit" (for the Chaintech card, if you've got an 0404, you need a different setup guide) and Bob's your uncle.

And for the record, it does indeed help. KS or ASIO, take your pick, both sound better than kmixer, though ASIO is less quirky than KS. Not sure if it's my craptacular hardware, odd setup (I revel in tweaking the ever-loving-screw out of Windows, masochist that I am

) or just the Magic/More Magic switch in the wrong position, but kmixer tends to crap all over my symphonic albums. Have tried the same files in iTunes, WinAmp, Foobar waveOut/DirectSound 1/2 (doesn't really matter which, they're all the same transport with different levels of overhead), Foobar (ASIO), and Foobar (Kernel Streaming). For whatever reason, KS and ASIO remove the crap, and let me enjoy the music.

Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.

 

[Halbyrd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asmo I use foobar because I love tabbed playlists for managing music, and you can simply use the plugin for foobar that mimics itunes interface. I use foobar because it provides more power, technically, and UI over my music.

There's a plugin for this? (not surprising, but didn't know). Link pretty please?

 

[alexanderino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halbyrd At this point, you'll probably want to re-compress these WAV files into another, more widely-accepted lossless format--FLAC, MPC, and APE seem to be the most popular options around here…

MPC (Musepack) is not lossless.

-- Jason

 

[Halbyrd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexanderino MPC (Musepack) is not lossless. -- Jason

Point taken.

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DukeTogo Honestly for the effort, I would bet most people can't tell the difference in sound between players...

That's true, but kind of irrelevant in the context of your audience.
I guess on a website dedicated to weightlifting you wouldn't question claims that the members are stronger than average, and here on head-fi you are talking to a bunch of nuts who have trained the sensitivity of their hearing for years.
Even if a newbie isn't yet able to tell differences it's worthwhile to sqeeze the best SQ out of a given budget since you can't train your hearing by listening through flawed technologies.

Edit:
And yes, I've performed quite a few blind tests( software , cables, sources, amps) in order to avoid fooling myself, and all I can say regarding kMixer is: get rid of it by what means ever.
It's possible to bypass kMixer on a Windows based PC even if you like to stay with Itunes, e.g. by using a RME soundcard.

 

[whiteSanjuro]

depending on your music collection, gapless playback can be anywhere from meaningless to essential. for me, it is the #2 requirement (#1 being ogg and flac support). no version of iTunes supports genuine gapless playback in any format, unlike foobar which supports gapless playback as perfectly as can be done for every format it handles, so foobar automatically wins. this is sad for me because I have bought 2 macs in the past 6 monthes and have no way of playing back tracks gaplessly at all

 

[DukeTogo]

whiteSanjuro

I thought the trick was to turn on Crossfeed Playback in iTunes and just set the period to 0s.

I realize that might not be "true" gapless, but I'd be interested to know in what way it is different (in a practical sense).

 

[gerG]

Quote:

you are talking to a bunch of nuts who have trained the sensitivity of their hearing for years.

Hey, I resemble that comment!

I use itunes with both a rotten apple and dirty old windows (I have issues with both Bill and Steve). On either platform, when I stream to the airport express, it shows up as 44.1 khz. For the windows platform, this would suggest 2 possibilities:
1) itunes bypasses kmixer and streams directly to the AE in its own lingo
2) itunes streams through kmixer, which resamples, then streams to AE, which resamples back to 44.1

#2 is an absurdly convoluted solution, so in the absence of other data, it would be the obvious answer. However, there is other data. The other PC output (beeps and squeaks) still show up through the route dictated by the audio control panel, and the AE is not even an option there. That strongly suggests that itunes has its own streampath defined. Although option #2 is a better fit to the Rube Goldberg criteria, I have to rule it out and conclude that itunes bypasses kmixer.

If anybody can think of other tests to run, I would be happy to investigate further.


gerG

 

[whiteSanjuro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DukeTogo whiteSanjuro I thought the trick was to turn on Crossfeed Playback in iTunes and just set the period to 0s. I realize that might not be "true" gapless, but I'd be interested to know in what way it is different (in a practical sense).

the fix you mention seems to work infrequently at best and also makes no sense since crossfading is not the same as back-to-back-gapless playing. the following HA forum links mention iTunes inability to playback w/o gaps:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...opic=29419&hl=
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...opic=28903&hl=
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...opic=28899&hl=

lastly, itunes can't play FLAC.