[Music Alchemist]

  My guess is that some aspect of your computer performance is exceeding the available resources.

 
heh. Well, it keeps saying the speed is nearly 2 GHz, yet the maximum speed is 1.2 GHz. XD

 

[theveterans]

Upgrade to Windows 10 or 8.1 perhaps, but 8.1 IMO is better than 10 performance wise. In the meantime, why don't you use high priority in the ASIO executable if you're using Foobar ASIO output as a way to lessen the skips.
 

 
BTW, my 1.9 GHz Core i5 dual core tablet doesn't choke on it.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Upgrade to Windows 10 or 8.1 perhaps, but 8.1 IMO is better than 10 performance wise. In the meantime, why don't you use high priority in the ASIO executable if you're using Foobar ASIO output as a way to lessen the skips.

 
In the first post I mentioned that I have Windows 10.
 
Although I do use ASIO, I use HQPlayer. All I can do is change the priority of that application, which doesn't help.

 

[theveterans]

Last resort is to use that Fidelizer program, but I would try to look for DPC latency checks to see if your system is having problems regarding DPC latency (one root cause of audio dropouts).

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Last resort is to use that Fidelizer program, but I would try to look for DPC latency checks to see if your system is having problems regarding DPC latency (one root cause of audio dropouts).

 
I actually already have Fidelizer activated right now.

 
Yeah...I'm not a techie. No clue how to do any of the technical stuff, and I'm not gonna bother unless I have a rundown beforehand on exactly what to do and exactly how it could potentially fix the problem: remove stuttering altogether.
 
As I mentioned, JPLAY does remove stuttering altogether...but I want to have that no-stutter benefit with other players too.

 

[theveterans]

That DPC latency stuff is just running a program for about 1 minute. It'll tell you if you are experiencing stuttering due to DPC latency. If you do, head over to a tech forum so they can assist you on fixing that issue, if everything is normal, you should get something like this:
 

 

[Music Alchemist]

  That DPC latency stuff is just running a program for about 1 minute. It'll tell you if you are experiencing stuttering due to DPC latency. If you do, head over to a tech forum so they can assist you on fixing that issue, if everything is normal, you should get something like this:

 
Now we're getting somewhere:
 

 
But manually disable/re-enable various devices? Urgh. I hate work.

 

[theveterans]

I suggest to head to a tech forum rather than continuing this thread since I myself aren't that adept to driver issues hehe. I know it's a pain in the butt, but it is what it is

 

[Music Alchemist]

  I suggest to head to a tech forum rather than continuing this thread since I myself aren't that adept to driver issues hehe. I know it's a pain in the butt, but it is what it is

 
B-but...I'm Music Alchemist. I can't leave Head-Fi. I'm trapped here! *taps frantically on force field*
 

 
ehehe... But now that I think about it, there aren't terribly many device drivers to sift through. Guess I'll get to the trial and error when I feel like it.

 

[NA Blur]

Here are a few things to try:
 
Turn off any virus scanner
 
Turn off Power Management for all USB HUB devices in Device Manager
 
Try all USB ports
 
Reinstall the USB drivers for the DAC
 
Unplug other USB devices one at a time and see if it clears up ( could be a bad mouse for example )
 
Try another USB cable
 
It might be that some of the tracks you have introduced stuttering when you ripped them. Does it occur with any track randomly?
 
Does your DAC have optical in?

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Here are a few things to try:
 
Turn off any virus scanner
 
Turn off Power Management for all USB HUB devices in Device Manager
 
Try all USB ports
 
Reinstall the USB drivers for the DAC
 
Unplug other USB devices one at a time and see if it clears up ( could be a bad mouse for example )
 
Try another USB cable
 
It might be that some of the tracks you have introduced stuttering when you ripped them. Does it occur with any track randomly?
 
Does your DAC have optical in?

 
Thanks for all the recommendations. Looks like I have a heaping helping of added work ahead of me, though...
 
As covered earlier, there are no other USB devices in use.
 
It's all tracks, randomly.
 
I can connect to my DAC/amp either via USB or a 3.5mm cable...but it doesn't make a difference as far as the stuttering goes.

 

[Mython]

Glad you're getting closer to solving the issue (latency...)
 
I'm learning, too, here

 
 
 
Please report back and let us know how you dealt with the issue.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Just a little update. I've been using foobar2000 tonight instead of HQPlayer (my usual player which does lots of processor-intensive DSP). Hasn't stuttered once! And I haven't bothered disabling any device drivers or anything. My current buffer length is 1030 ms and full file buffering is activated. In the past, it still stuttered with the same software and settings, so you could say I'm lucky for the moment.

 

[NA Blur]

Nice!! Foobar is great because it doesn't heavily use system resources.

 

[Music Alchemist]

I found an ideal solution! (For me, at least.)
 
All I had to do was create RAM drives with the help of SoftPerfect RAM Disk. Now, with the way I'm doing things, everything (music players, audio files, etc.) is stored in memory, and no matter what I do, there is no stuttering whatsoever! Even with the processor-intensive HQPlayer.
 
Believe it or not, this also gives me much better sound quality than before. I'm freaking out at how much better all my music sounds now! There's a lot of info across the Internet about RAM disks sounding better, for those who care to research it without erroneously assuming it couldn't sound any different.
 
Update: Turns out it was only HQPlayer making the difference in sound. But I'm still gonna use the RAM drives to prevent stuttering and have much better playback of videos.