Best Browser For Audio Quality?

[Ghoostknight]

Nor edge or chrome resamples on windows by themselves. Maybe the qobuz web player could force the resampling though.

How you know?
i dont think qobuz web player is resampling, since its just on chromium the case, unless chromium forces qobuz to only play 48khz
easyeffects on linux shows quite easy which application is streaming audio in what samplerate, chromium stays at 48khz while firefox switches properly
i cant say how its on windows, but since google chrome is based on chromium i would expect it to be the same case (and it would also explain the difference i heared on windows between firefox and chrome/opera/vivaldi)

i can probably try to find another website that streams non-48khz to also try it, youtube streams in 48khz natively

Edit: https://github.com/ciderapp/Cider/issues/963 someone describes the same issue there

 

[VNandor]

I created a 96kHz file that has a sine sweep in it which goes up to 45kHz. I embedded this file in an HTML document and opened the document using edge/chrome. I started playing the file, and (this is the tricky part) I looked at what sound was getting sent to the DAC using a DAW and my audio interface's loopback feature. I used a real time frequency analyzer to confirm the sweep would still go up to 45kHz. If the signal got downsampled to 44.1/48/kHz, it obviously wouldn't be able to go up that far. However this doesn't confirm that there's absolutely no resampling is taking place, for example I wouldn't notice if the signal was upsampled with this test.

I think audacity also lets you capture the bits sent towards any kind of DAC but I haven't tried that route.

 

[Ghoostknight]

I created a 96kHz file that has a sine sweep in it which goes up to 45kHz. I embedded this file in an HTML document and opened the document using edge/chrome. I started playing the file, and (this is the tricky part) I looked at what sound was getting sent to the DAC using a DAW and my audio interface's loopback feature. I used a real time frequency analyzer to confirm the sweep would still go up to 45kHz. If the signal got downsampled to 44.1/48/kHz, it obviously wouldn't be able to go up that far. However this doesn't confirm that there's absolutely no resampling is taking place, for example I wouldn't notice if the signal was upsampled with this test.

I think audacity also lets you capture the bits sent towards any kind of DAC but I haven't tried that route.

hmm maybe this is just a issue on linux, tho it would be kinda strange, specially since i also heared a difference between firefox and chrome on windows
unfortunaly i dont know how to check this in windows beside your way maybe someone else has a idea

well, in the end im happy with firefox and linux so far, its not on par with my raspberry pi streamer with moode sound quality wise but it got now pretty close and imo is already way better than windows + chrome
the difference could be 1. pipewire and resampling (moode just uses alsa directly) and 2. i use toslink to connect my pc to the dac instead of usb on moode

for me the story kinda ends here since i found "my best" solution, i can just suggest to try firefox vs chrome yourself if someone is curious for both platforms (linux and windows)

 

[Androxylo]

I think one important aspect of the initial thread post is - is there any web browser where you can install a custom upsampler (e.g. Sox) replacing the windows stock upsampler. I don't know the answer except that technically it's totally possible to have a audiophile grade web browser that is making everything the best possible 24/192 contents with proper clipping protection even before windows sees it.

Also what I verified myself, if you manually upsample something high quality 16/44 with max settings of Sox into 24/192 and then play it with a random audio player that doesn't have any built in high end upsampler by itself, you'll get a significant quality boost.

This is mostly about online streaming, because say Tidal has a web client and theoretically you can play it better than standalone client.

 

[theveterans]

I think one important aspect of the initial thread post is - is there any web browser where you can install a custom upsampler (e.g. Sox) replacing the windows stock upsampler. I don't know the answer except that technically it's totally possible to have a audiophile grade web browser that is making everything the best possible 24/192 contents with proper clipping protection even before windows sees it.

Also what I verified myself, if you manually upsample something high quality 16/44 with max settings of Sox into 24/192 and then play it with a random audio player that doesn't have any built in high end upsampler by itself, you'll get a significant quality boost.

This is mostly about online streaming, because say Tidal has a web client and theoretically you can play it better than standalone client.

You're still using Windows resampler no matter what. If you use SoX on Foobar2000 on WASAPI Push mode (not exclusive since you won't be able to use KMixer in this case) and play Tidal on a browser, the playback on the Foobar2000 with SoX will get mixed with the Tidal from a browser that's oversampled by built-in KMixer

IMHO, the important part for me is converting this digital data as Ethernet packets which pretty much negates the need for bit-perfect streaming and should have incredible SQ. The LAN network must be filtered and isolated from the PC and router to maximize SQ

 

[Androxylo]

You're still using Windows resampler no matter what. If you use SoX on Foobar2000 on WASAPI Push mode (not exclusive since you won't be able to use KMixer in this case) and play Tidal on a browser, the playback on the Foobar2000 with SoX will get mixed with the Tidal from a browser that's oversampled by built-in KMixer

IMHO, the important part for me is converting this digital data as Ethernet packets which pretty much negates the need for bit-perfect streaming and should have incredible SQ. The LAN network must be filtered and isolated from the PC and router to maximize SQ

Even though you are technically correct I will argue. Yes the Windows resamper will get the stream from whatever you use to play no matter what. However, if what it gets is already 24/192 it will not do anything with it, it's no-op.

I kinda hear this from the fact that from my Tidal client the best content 24/48 and up sounds noticeably better than the best 16/41. And yes, it always goes to Windows upsampler for another step to 24/192. And no, I don't claim that 16/41 is so much narrower than we hear, it's most likely because the Windows upsampler is inferior. I tried to just get the best possible slow Sox treatment to a well recorded 16/41 and I think I would fail to pass a blind test against original 24/192. The truth is, even on a powerful desktop CPU the proper Sox upsampling is slower than realtime and requires a time window, so it's something impossible to use for something like movies. The Windows upsampler is optimized for speed and by definition it cannot do a proper job.

If anyone has questions why I don't use exclusive mode is because I really like Equalizer APO. My speakers start slow rolloff below 80 Hz but EQAPO makes them flat to 45 Hz, also flattens some other ranges.

 

[costabrothers]

I've run Linux Mint and really like it, and bought and sold audio equipment for years. I've tried several browsers for it with Youtube music and other sites and never noticed a difference, even with high end stuff like the Topping A90/D90. I'd go with the one that offers the most addons that you use. I like Firefox because there's some Youtube and video downloaders available for it, and haven't run into an addon that isn't available for it. Do a blind test with volume matching, several decibel meters available for phones. It's nearly impossible to judge audio any other way. Linux programmers could probably answer it best, like an audio addon that's available for different browsers. Just shooting them a question if there's any difference in sound handling between the different browsers would get the answer.

Hello,

well a little side story, i abonded Windows 2-3 years ago for "serious listening" because my raspberry pi streamer (with currently moode) sounds way better
i used linux for a while for my main pc but even linux isnt perfect because of pulseaudio and i switched back to windows (mainly because of games)

but i got to the point recently, if i wanna use my PC for multimedia purposes (watching netflix, youtube, playing games etc) in the highest audio quality possible i probably need to switch back to Linux and either use ALSA on its own (like moode audio) or try PipeWire instead of PulseAudio

from here: i prefer if you guys give your opinion on browsers for LINUX, since i think Windows has many flaws on its own for Audio (like crappy resampling)

now to my question, did one of you either try different browser subjectively and heared a difference? (i just tried firefox vs opera which is chromium based under windows and i think firefox sounds a little better)

or does someone has a idea how the browser operate objectivly? since browser, as i understand it, use their own resampling/audio core im wondering which one does work with the least resampling (which i would guess is 44,1khz since the majority of sources will probably be 44,1khz) so the browser acts just as a passtrough
maybe one browser even streams audio in the native samplerate and just resamples the second audio source (tab) to the first one? this would be actually really great imo

Once i installed Linux the upcoming days i can check this probably myself since there was a easy way to see the samplerates of the different applications if i remember right, this should be easy enough to see how the browser react with different streams/multiple sources, i would guess/fear that the browser work differently under Windows tho if someone is curious here

Best Regards

Yeah, I’ve noticed similar things. Firefox does sound a bit cleaner to me than Chromium-based browsers, though it’s subtle. On Linux, PipeWire is definitely worth trying much better control than Pulse, and closer to ALSA quality without the headache. No browser seems to offer true bit-perfect playback, but with the right setup, you can minimize resampling. Tools like pw-top or pavucontrol will help you see what’s going on under the hood. Let us know what you find when you test it

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

wrong thread...

 

[Roseval]

WASAPI Push mode (not exclusive since you won't be able to use KMixer in this case)

Really?
KMixer was part of Windows 98 - XP. From Vista (2006) on it is no longer part of the Wind audio.
WASAPI in push or in event mode has nothing to do with shared or exclusive mode.

 

[theveterans]

Really?
KMixer was part of Windows 98 - XP. From Vista (2006) on it is no longer part of the Wind audio.
WASAPI in push or in event mode has nothing to do with shared or exclusive mode

DirectSound would be the correct term indeed