Chaintech AV-710 Setup Thread, Including True 44.1kHz Wolfson Output in XP

[leeperry]

the 5.50A are out: Welcome to AUDIOTRAK Korea

 

[JWFokker]

5.50A are the first drivers that have worked for me with Windows 7. I finally have multichannel sound being processed by the sound card instead of the CPU.

Unfortunately I just purchased a refurbished X-Fi card through Amazon so this will only be useful until I receive the new card.

 

[leeperry]

it's a bummer that their release notes are confidential, you can never know what they fix in new builds...irritating

 

[najames]

Thanks, I installed the 5.50A, running out the black jack. It seems to sound the same for me. CPU usage is usually 3-5% now running foobar, I believe it was higher before. I'm running an AMD 5000 dual core in this box.

Jim

 

[infinitesymphony]

So, is it safe to update the Windows 7 portion to the 5.50A drivers and remove all the stuff about compatibility modes? Are these drivers capable of bit-perfect stereo output at 44.1kHz?

 

[infinitesymphony]

Quote:

Originally Posted by najames /img/forum/go_quote.gif Today, I read that the lower black port actually runs off the better Wolfson DAC, hmm. I went into the Envy control panel and switched the digital out to "S/PDIF out enable" and "PCM only", "2 channel Hi Sample Rate", and changed the sample rate to "96KHz". In foobar2000, there are 2 options for the "Envy 24 family audio controller WDM" (a) speakers (b) Digital audio (S/PDIF). I set it to the digital audio S/PDIF mode and now there is audio streaming out the lower black jack (haven't tried optical) port to my speakers and my 5.1 channel headphone mode still seems to work ok. Are these the settings I should use?

Not if you want bit-perfect audio. As the instructions say, don't use Hi Sample Rate and do select Auto for the sample rate. Right now you're upsampling to 96kHz.

 

[Graphicism]

I finally got around to installing the 5.50A drivers and confirm them work processing 16-bit WASAPI digital audio in Foobar but now I can't get my computer speakers to work, even for the likes of youtube?

I'm running Win 7 64-bit

 

[infinitesymphony]

I don't know if WASAPI is like kernel streaming, but while KS is initialized, you can't listen to other DirectSound sources at the same time.

 

[oohms]

I have been using my AV710 with windows 7 x64 again, this time with 5.50A drivers, then "upgraded" to 4.60b.

No issues whatsoever in games or playing music, and I have confirmed them to be bit perfect at 44.1 using wasapi (DTS test)

 

[najames]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graphicism /img/forum/go_quote.gif I finally got around to installing the 5.50A drivers and confirm them work processing 16-bit WASAPI digital audio in Foobar but now I can't get my computer speakers to work, even for the likes of youtube? I'm running Win 7 64-bit

Sorry if you already know this, but I worked with AV710 optical output last night and realized there is a direct correlation between settings in the Envy Control panel, foobar, and the jacks used on the AV710.

For example, I couldn't get sound if I tried the last WASAPI digital S/PDIF selection in Foobar with opitcal output from the AV710, only got a 44.1KHz error. I realized I'd set the Envy panel to "Hi Sample" 96KHz/24bit. In foobar I added the resampler, reset it to 96KHz/24bit and I got sound, plus my old Pioneer Elite receiver displayed 96KHz on the display, nice verification. I could change back to 44.1KHz if I again matched settings in the Envy Control Panel and foobar. The Pioneer just displays the input selection, no sampling freq, at 44.1Hhz.

So far sound quality is best in this order:
AV710 optical > Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX (Burr Brown DACs) > AD700
AV710 black jack > 3.5mm to RCA cable > Rotel preamp > AD700
AV710 black jack > Logitech speakers or AD700 headphones
AV710 green jack > Logitech speakers or IM-590 IEMs (didn't have the AD700 yet)

Also at the top was Rotel 965BX CD player > Rotel preamp/amp, but of course I can only play CDs with this setup. I might test the Rotel CD digital > Pioneer VSX-24THX.

My benchmark song is the 1960's Caterina Valente Greatest Hits "Ponciana". Her voice at about the 51 second mark sounds nasty except on 2 setups, either the Rotel CD player > Rotel preamp/amp or the AV710 optical > Pioneer Elite. I am glad my wife listens to this stuff, everyone should have this song to test with (warning: it might kill hard rockers and rappers). No bad equipment can hide from this song.

I even connected up a pair of B&W 610 speakers to the Pioneer and it also sounded really good to me with the AV710 optical > Pioneer Elite.

Hmm, I might pull the AV710 and try the onboard digital sound output > Pioneer again, but video processing will consume me for a while first.

 

[najames]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graphicism /img/forum/go_quote.gif I finally got around to installing the 5.50A drivers and confirm them work processing 16-bit WASAPI digital audio in Foobar but now I can't get my computer speakers to work, even for the likes of youtube? I'm running Win 7 64-bit

I also noticed this. Last night I pulled out the AV-710 to compare the onboard optical, still no Youtube sound. I updated Java, reinstalled a newer version of Flash, and sound was restored to things like Youtube. However, if I have a Youtube session open while I have been listening to foobar, I have to refresh the Youtube page to get sound. This worked the same on a 3.5mm to RCA cable or optical into my receiver.

 

[music_man]

i prefer the upsampling. i think this is still a fine card for 2 channel audio.

if you install the 5.40f or 5.50a drivers you will not have the option of 192khz. install the 5.50f with the installer. then take the folder "envyadeck" from the extracted 5.40a folder and replace the envyadeck folder in in c:\program files\via\viaudioi with the folder from 5.40a. now you have 5.50a drivers with 192khz support.

then i would use winamp with the mad input plugin. this will allow you to set the card to 32 bit depth. read the instructions. use the directsound output.

i do not know if foobar lets you set the card to 32 bit.

i think this is the best sq out of this card. ymmv.

i am using 20k buffers with winamp in realtime and mad on high. cpu usage control is off. i have a very old cpu and it is only getting 2 to 4%.

i must add i am listening to a 128kbps aacplus stream. with hq sources, 16/44.1 may indeed be much better. anyways for hq sources the top xonar should smoke this card. it is intresting this chipset is still used/supported after so many years. very odd for computer hardware.

i hope this helps someone.

music_man

 

[zzbloopzz]

The v5.50A's are great! I use to have this weird hissing noise for a year and I always thought it was my Fiio E5... turned out to be the drivers all along! :c)

Just for record I am using Windows 7 x64. Just right click install and run as Admin. Go to S/PDIF in the Via sound manager and select Hi Sample Rate 2, and your good to go.

 

[music_man]

why can't i get 192khz button on the 550 adeck? i had to do as i stated above.

thanks,
music_man

 

[music_man]

anyone can help with this? i want to use the 5.50 adeck as well. audiotrack shows a bunch of features i don't have! what the heck is wrong?

thanks,
music_man