[Muinarc]

Wow that's one heck of a bump. Congrats on being polite and using the search function

ASIO is still used though I find a lot of people have switched to WASAPI on windows PCs because it's a little less temperamental than ASIO..... but that's if you can even tell the difference.

 

[dirtythekid]

I just switched from WASAPI to ASIO and I honestly can't tell much difference, if any. As I understand it, ASIO is more capable than WASAPI, allowing 384khz/32bit playback for those beefy asynchronous DACs and folks that wanna do some heavy resampling. For those modest rigs out there, I think WASAPI and ASIO are perceivably identical.

 

[castleofargh]

  I just switched from WASAPI to ASIO and I honestly can't tell much difference, if any. As I understand it, ASIO is more capable than WASAPI, allowing 384khz/32bit playback for those beefy asynchronous DACs and folks that wanna do some heavy resampling. For those modest rigs out there, I think WASAPI and ASIO are perceivably identical.

they do the same thing. simply asio will tend to go with maximum bitdepth by default, when wasapi will tend to go with last setting whatever it is, but can be set to the same as asio. both are really limited only by the DAC max capapbility.
it's very much like using winzip or winrar to open a zip file. we can spend days trying to see who's using a little less CPU, who's a little faster, etc. but in the end the opened file is still the same.

 

[Tiemen]

It's interesting to read this on the Foobar website about ASIO:
 
"Please note that this component is meant for systems where ASIO is the only available output method. It is highly recommended to use the default output modes instead of ASIO. Contrary to popular "audiophile" claims, there are NO benefits from using ASIO as far as music playback quality is concerned, while bugs in ASIO drivers may severely degrade the performance."

 

[BeatsWork]

  It's interesting to read this on the Foobar website about ASIO:
 
"Please note that this component is meant for systems where ASIO is the only available output method. It is highly recommended to use the default output modes instead of ASIO. Contrary to popular "audiophile" claims, there are NO benefits from using ASIO as far as music playback quality is concerned, while bugs in ASIO drivers may severely degrade the performance."

The question is when was that written? Asio4All driver definitely had some bugs but the last several DACS I've bought had ASIO drivers created by mfg. specifically for chipset and are not problematic.  Agree with prior posts however that other than allowing higher sample/bit rate I wouldn't be able to distinguish ASIO from WASAPI. So rest easy about using WASAPI and instead obsess about changing earpads, cables, etc.