[Makiah S]

Yea I read a few pages of this thread... and personally I'd rather buy a O2 DAC and move on with my life, than fiddle with this... again I don't totally understand it but then again... it just seems like well suckers bait. Maybe it works, maybe it works MAGICALLY but... meh I won't know <3
 
Plus I HATE having extra services running on my pc when I game -.-, infact I disable a few processes and services when I game.

 

[adydula]

If you think "hiss" is reduced then it can be measured and be proof positive....show me your results.
 
Take a look at this article:
 
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/blogs/mitchco/jriver-vs-jplay-test-results-156/
 
Alex

 

[stv014]

Quote:

You are right, this is what should be happening, but unfortunately this does not seem to be what a lot of people are observing with high end computer audio equipment and consumer operating systems.

 
Subjective impressions related to "high end" audio should be taken with more than just a grain of salt, unless the comparisons are performed under well controlled conditions. There are plenty of nonsensical claims (things like identical WAV files sounding different, demagnetizing CDs and cables, cable directionality, and more), and it is proven that bias can affect what people hear.

 

[stv014]

Quote:

In my (old) setup,  Asus A8V-X/ Athlon 64 (Venice) 3200+/ 2 GB DDR400/ Fiio D3 (dac)/ Edifier M3400/ WinXP-Pro SP3, I am sure I can increase/ decrease hiss by lowering/ raising cpu priority.

 
That is not normal though, the FiiO D3 (which is hardly a particularly good DAC, the FiiO D3 and D5 are basically like onboard audio codecs in an external enclosure) is most likely picking up interference through a ground loop or poor USB power supply filtering. Obviously, the interference depends on what the computer is doing, but the best way to avoid the hiss is to fix the hardware problems. I do not get any audible noise with my sound cards regardless of what programs are running.

 

[goodvibes]

Quote:

 
Subjective impressions related to "high end" audio should be taken with more than just a grain of salt, unless the comparisons are performed under well controlled conditions. There are plenty of nonsensical claims (things like identical WAV files sounding different, demagnetizing CDs and cables, cable directionality, and more), and it is proven that bias can affect what people hear.

or not hear. Lots of snake oil but also some lack of objectiveness to things we may not fully understand.

 

[stv014]

Quote:

or not hear. Lots of snake oil but also some lack of objectiveness to things we may not fully understand.

 
Well, I would rather not invest in something when the only argument in its favor is "there is 0 credible evidence that it is useful, but you cannot prove with 100.0000% certainty that it is useless".

 

[drez]

Well, I would rather not invest in something when the only argument in its favor is "there is 0 credible evidence that it is useful, but you cannot prove with 100.0000% certainty that it is useless".

It is wise to use caution especially when spending money on tweaks, a lot of them are nonsense or actually perform badly and colour the sound because this is easier than designing something that works better objectively as that requires engineering knowledge. There is also the issue of spending money on something that will make a very small difference when you could be spending money on things that are more important.

Computer audio software fall into neither of these traps though, save for maybe the differences being too small for some systems and measurements to provide proof positive. Avoid the snake oil and spending money by all means, but IMO there is no benefit in being dismissive of things that are free to try, there is just a risk involved that the change will be negative, so you would need to use critical listening skills to make sense of this.

Out of interest is there any evidence that bitperfect playback is measurably better than direct sound? (I know this isn't your argument but just as a general question) If you compare the two by ear the difference is similar in magnitude to changing other computer settings, just the premise is easier to swallow.

 

[jasonb]

This should work when using iTunes as my music player also, correct?
 
I don't need to run foobar or anything special, right? I am perfectly fine with iTunes.

 

[jasonb]

this seems to have made itunes playback smoother, but things stutter when i play music through MOG through a web browser. 

 

[xnor]

Yeah because it messes with process/thread priorities which are perfectly fine the way each application / Windows sets it.

 

[jasonb]

I've been using this and it seems to make a worthwhile difference. Everything sounds just a touch clearer and iTunes definitely runs smoother with no hiccups or stutters. I just run it on the professional (lightest setting) so not to slow down the rest of my computer.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Yeah because it messes with process/thread priorities which are perfectly fine the way each application / Windows sets it.

 
Basically this.

 

[Wolf11]

So most people are not fond of this app? 
 
What do people use to adjust audio otherwise?

 

[xnor]

With a proper player, up-to-date drivers and operating system and non-broken hardware you don't need to "adjust audio".
 
Use http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon if you have audio glitches and fix the actual problem(s).

 

[Wolf11]

Quote:

With a proper player, up-to-date drivers and operating system and non-broken hardware you don't need to "adjust audio".
 
Use http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon if you have audio glitches and fix the actual problem(s).

Thanks! I'll try this out.