ciphercomplete
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Feb 21, 2008
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So initial conclusion is that the VIA USB32 driver provided by Audio-GD for the DI-2014 does not provide the same level of performance/optimisation as the standard Microsoft USB driver built into Windows Server 2012 R2 when using my AP2/PP combination.
frizzup
The "usb driver" and the driver for the VIA chip and for that matter, the Audiophilleo driver, are two completely different things. The VIA driver does not replace the Windows usb driver. The usb driver tells windows how to use the usb ports. The via driver tells windows how to use the usb ports in order to communicate with the VIA USB 32 chip inside the dac/DI. Comparing the two is a little like comparing a bluray player to a bluray disc.
What is probably going on is that the difference in programming between the via driver and the AP2 driver puts one at a disavantage when used with Windows server 2012. This is ok as neither Audiophilleo or Audio GD claim that their drivers work with Windows Server, Audiophilleo doesnt even list Windows 8 on its driver compatibility list. Since neither claim to work without issue on Windows Server its just blind luck that one works better than the other. It is also quite possible that you are not hearing the best from either.
My own personal experience with last via driver release was that it was superior to the AP2/PP on Windows 8.1 but again since Audiophilleo doesnt list Windows 8.1 on its driver compatibility list, it is possible that I wasnt hearing it at its best.