Gorling
New Head-Fier
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- Jan 24, 2012
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In my experience the Windows software mixer adds a distinct and very audible coloration of sound that to my knowledge can only be bypassed by using either ASIO or WASAPI. For the longest time there has been numeral request on the official Spotify forums for implementation of either ASIO or WASAPI as a way to bypass the Windows software mixer but status has been "Not right now" since forever (2012).
For many years the unofficial 3rd party client Fidelify sorted this issue by allowing either WASAPI or ASIO using libspotify. However, official support for libspotify has been depreciated since 2015 and sometime during this fall (2018) Fidelify finally stopped working. For the past few months I have been on the lookout for alternatives to Fidelify without much success. I've spotted a few threads on Reddit where people have been discribing a problem similar to mine. Today I finally found a solution and I wanted to share. Credits to this post (Swedish) from back in 2016.
Presenting VB-Audio Hi-Fi Cable & ASIO-Bridge:
https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/index.htm#DownloadASIOBridge
* HIFI-CABLE driver is a virtual audio device appearing in the audio device list
* With ASIO-Bridge Application, HI-FI CABLE's Input can be routed to any ASIO Device Output
* For soundcards without native ASIO support (most soundcards) you also need ASIO4ALL
Procedure for Windows 7 (because that's what I use)
1. Download and install ASIO4ALL
2. Download and install HIFI-CABLE & ASIO-Bridge. Reboot your computer.
3. Open Sound settings in Windows Control Panel. You should now have a new device named Hi-Fi Cable Input visible. Select it as default device
4. Open Spotify and play any track like you would normally
5. If you don't get any sound find ASIO4ALL in the bottom right of the task bar. Icon should look like a Play or Pause-button. Click to open ASIO4ALL settings. Make sure your soundcard is enabled in the list (click the button to make it blue)
Please leave feedback if you experience any gains or losses in sound quality from this method.
Enjoy! / Anders
For many years the unofficial 3rd party client Fidelify sorted this issue by allowing either WASAPI or ASIO using libspotify. However, official support for libspotify has been depreciated since 2015 and sometime during this fall (2018) Fidelify finally stopped working. For the past few months I have been on the lookout for alternatives to Fidelify without much success. I've spotted a few threads on Reddit where people have been discribing a problem similar to mine. Today I finally found a solution and I wanted to share. Credits to this post (Swedish) from back in 2016.
Presenting VB-Audio Hi-Fi Cable & ASIO-Bridge:
https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/index.htm#DownloadASIOBridge
* HIFI-CABLE driver is a virtual audio device appearing in the audio device list
* With ASIO-Bridge Application, HI-FI CABLE's Input can be routed to any ASIO Device Output
* For soundcards without native ASIO support (most soundcards) you also need ASIO4ALL
Procedure for Windows 7 (because that's what I use)
1. Download and install ASIO4ALL
2. Download and install HIFI-CABLE & ASIO-Bridge. Reboot your computer.
3. Open Sound settings in Windows Control Panel. You should now have a new device named Hi-Fi Cable Input visible. Select it as default device
4. Open Spotify and play any track like you would normally
5. If you don't get any sound find ASIO4ALL in the bottom right of the task bar. Icon should look like a Play or Pause-button. Click to open ASIO4ALL settings. Make sure your soundcard is enabled in the list (click the button to make it blue)
Please leave feedback if you experience any gains or losses in sound quality from this method.
Enjoy! / Anders