[Bootleg]

I am not a power user and do not have the noodle to be able to figure out the subtle nuances of the KMIXER.

I have read a few posts where Elias has said that Vista does audio better than XP, but then I've read a few where he seems to possibly say that XP has some advantages.

Further, it appears that iTunes stinks.

Look, I am Joe bag 'o donuts here--I need simple directions.

If using the Benchmark DAC1 USB, what should I do:

1. Use XP or Vista?

2. Use Itunes or Windows Media Player? (If neither, then what?)

 

[forsberg]

I thought it doesnt matter for dac1 since it is "driverless"

 

[Bootleg]

Understanding that I do not know what I'm talking about, the posts led me to the conclusion that there might be a difference between XP and Vista--and almost certainly between iTunes, WMP, and others.

I'm getting ready to buy a laptop to pair with my DAC1 USB and I just want to know whether I should get an XP or Vista one?

 

[forsberg]

You should use XP, and use foobar2000 as your player

i dunno why anyone picks vista over xp (except that its newer)...

 

[DSlayerZX]

Because after a year or two, a lot of software would start only support Vista and have trouble running on XP (like 2000 and XP right now)

Hell, Vista is actually not bad at start, since XP is even more flawed when they published it.

But anyway, Yes, definitely go for Foobar2000. It may be a little sonic improvement, but its a program that is fun to play with

 

[rlanger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by forsberg /img/forum/go_quote.gif You should use XP, and use foobar2000 as your player i dunno why anyone picks vista over xp (except that its newer)...

If you are purchasing a new machine, I would definitely recommend Vista over XP. As long as you have driver support for all of your peripherals and software updates, you'll be fine.

As I understand it, Vista doesn't use Kmixer, which upsamples all audio in XP to 48khz and ultimately degrades the sound quality.

Also, Vista has a great feature that XP doesn't have that I believe is essential for those who use their computer for most listening. Vista allows you to control volume or mute individual applications. This means that I can be listening to music through Foobar, and mute my browser, system sounds or even Media Centre if I have the TV on.

 

[maarek99]

Vista has a lot of upsampling and mixing and effects going on in it's audio path. XP is actually purer and kmixer doesn't always even resample as has been proven many times.

The only better thing about it are the individual volume settings.

 

[Alleyman]

Any sources to above statements?

Also, kmixer will not resample if only one stream is present and the end device supports whatever samplerate the stream is in. This is easily testable by the udial sample file.

 

[Scrith]

There is a surprising amount of incorrect information in this thread. I don't really feel like going into details, but people here seem to be quite ignorant about what exactly kmixer (under both Vista and XP) really does.

Anyway, I've got a DAC1 USB, and I've used it with both XP and Vista. I'd go with Vista, given the choice, but it really won't make any difference as far as what you hear when using Foobar2000, in my experience.

 

[jiiteepee]

What 'bout the "missing error correction in USB Audio standard" as mentioned by a poster from another forum ... would this be an issue here and does it remain in Vista too?

(Source: http://www.driverheaven.net/general-...g-drivers.html)

... or is the information, which above poster gave, incorrect? If there are no error correction then ... ?


jiitee