Foobar: Why does it sound better

[luckybaer]

I was not satisfied with the sound coming from either of my soundcards. I was thinking about purchasing an amp or a DAC to improve the sound or just give up with the PC as a source.

I heard a lot about Foobar, and was curious about it - not because I thought it would improve sound, rather I was just plain curious.

Well, Foobar sounds much, MUCH better than iTunes, Windoze Media Slayer, and the Creative Player that came with my X-Fi Xtreme Music.

Why is that?

 

[lordgibbness]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckybaer I was not satisfied with the sound coming from either of my soundcards. I was thinking about purchasing an amp or a DAC to improve the sound or just give up with the PC as a source. I heard a lot about Foobar, and was curious about it - not because I thought it would improve sound, rather I was just plain curious. Well, Foobar sounds much, MUCH better than iTunes, Windoze Media Slayer, and the Creative Player that came with my X-Fi Xtreme Music. Why is that?

Most likely a placebo affect, unless you have broken directsound drivers and are now using kernel streaming. foobar is good (replaygain, configurable, lightweight etc.) but the SQ will be no different.

 

[HD-5000]

Might wanna check if the EQ is on on all of the other media players. Some can surely mess the sound up. Then you can compare the media players on interface, look, etc and not on sound.

But then again, I think that foobar is the best.

gl

 

[exmodel]

I think itunes sounds the best right from the start (and i notice a difference between all 3 playters), but foobar definately ends up sounding better through customizations. Mainly because of the the ossd/3d plug-in for me (http://www.oss3d.com)

 

[Chri5peed]

foobar certainly has the potential to sound better, it has a whole lot more DSPs than any other player.

 

[bangraman]

(Most of them in the vein of "never mind the sound quality, feel that spangliness")


It's not possible for Foobar to sound better when the sound is unmolested than other players which can output a 'straight' sound through ASIO, etc. And depending on your kit, the resampling when it's not might not even make an audible difference to you.

 

[luckybaer]

Guys, you are right. Something is screwed up with my other players, I guess. I downloaded and installed WinAmp, and it sounds good - like Foobar.

 

[lator]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckybaer Guys, you are right. Something is screwed up with my other players, I guess. I downloaded and installed WinAmp, and it sounds good - like Foobar.

Bypassing Windows mixer is very good thing and with Foobar or Winamp it is easily done. I have no experience doing it with the other players you mentioned.

 

[lordgibbness]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lator Bypassing Windows mixer is very good thing and with Foobar or Winamp it is easily done. I have no experience doing it with the other players you mentioned.

You do realise that asio4all is just an asio wrapper for directsound though don't you?