[Murugesh]

I have SigmaTel onboard sound in my laptop. In Foobar2K, I see the following options under sound devices

1. DS - Primary sound
2. DS - SigmaTel
3. ASIO4ALL
4. NULL Output

Question# 1: What does DS stand for?

Question# 2: I don't feel any difference in SQ between DS-Primary Sound and ASIO4ALL. it sounds the same. Does this mean both ASIO and DS-Primary sound by-passing kmixer?

 

[choariwap]

Question# 1: What does DS stand for?
- directsound. simply put, this passes thru kmixer. not good.


Question# 2: I don't feel any difference in SQ between DS-Primary Sound and ASIO4ALL. it sounds the same. Does this mean both ASIO and DS-Primary sound by-passing kmixer?
- your integrated sound card may not be good enough to resolve the differences. i also dont see an amp in your profile, which may also contribute to that. what phones were you using? plugged direct into the laptop?

with all that said, though, the difference is subtle. you'll notice a bigger difference getting a better soundcard.

 

[Murugesh]

Hi Choariwap,

I assume that using ASIO should by-pass me from kmixer. Is that correct?
If yes, then I think should observe some difference in SQ when using ASIO.
Where does sound card play its role here?

 

[choariwap]

the onboard soundcard in computers usually are very noisy, have poor sound quality and can't drive most headphones well. by driving well, i dont just mean volume, its being able to get them to put out quality bass, mids and high as wells as resolving detail, dyanmic impac and all that good stuff.

add all those to gether, and the improvement you get from bypassing kmixer gets lost in the muck.

i'm not talking about the digital stream here, its the analog section of soundcards that are bad... the part that sends current down to your cans.