I can see that I arrived late to this party!
I've ended up with a main rig consisting of a computer digital source, a USB DAC, and analog audio downstream from there. In the past, when I've used ASIO or Kernel Streaming to by-pass Windows playing the middle man between my digital source and DAC, I've very much heard and appreciated the difference. Having downloaded and installed the demo Aqvox ASIO USB driver and listened using my rig for a few hours (putting up with the injected "beep" every minute), this was no exception. I very much heard and really enjoyed/appreciated the difference that I heard the Aqvox driver to make. So, I plunked down the 103.40 euros ( 99 + 4.40 Paypal fee), installed the registration key and eliminated the beep-a-minute interference.
The kinds of audio improvements and the degree to which each improvement shows itself are similar to making other substantive adjustments to the audio chain: blacker background, wider dynamic range (extending both ends), musical features are presented with quite a bit higher resolution, allowing finer features to be noticeably more fully formed in the presentation. Black blacks provide constrast for whiter whites, so there is more vividness and tangible presence to the audible musical voices. A few other spin-offs from hearing more of what is there are: wider, deeper, more coherent soundstage with better defined imaging of voices, and hearing in sounds which previously sounded like homogeneous sounds, that they are comprised of multiple component sounds and that there is a beautiful variation (a shimmer, undulation or even development, if you will) in the sound as it is held.
The rig into which I added the Aqvox ASIO USB driver was already pretty much optimized for its components: vibration damping, IC, RFI shielding and component synergy. So, my options for making additional substantive improvements were getting to be those which cost more than I've got right now, or am likely to have for awhile. So, for me and this rig, the kinds and degree of improvements I'm hearing with the addition of the Aqvox ASIO USB driver make the (not inexpensive) cost of the driver a very cost-effective addition, for me and my ears. In fact, I know that the improvements are quite good because I go though longish periods of wanting to play (and actually playing and listening to) long lists of favorite tracks to "hear how they'll sound now". And the results of such listenings are sufficiently rewarding to keep those "now let me try THIS track" sessions going (... and going ...).
But, as I introduced this post, I'm no stranger to the benefits of bypassing Windows as a middle man between my digital source and my DAC, and installing this ASIO USB driver is no exception. Windows' middle-man handling of my digital stream was a weak link in this rig, making the elimination of it with the Aqvox ASIO USB driver very cost-effective for me.
