[Roseval]

If I use the device selected below, it's locked at 24-bit/48,000 Hz.

No surprise as this is Direct Sound. This is what is set in the Win audio panel so fixed by design.

If you are on Win10, you don't need the drivers by Benchmark as Win10 is fully UAC2 compliant.
https://benchmarkmedia.com/pages/dac-drivers

Try Foobar + WASAPI/Exclusive mode. This will provide automatic sample rate switching.
https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/Foobar.htm

 

[Thaddy]

Which output device should be selected? Event vs. push?

edit: It seems WASAPI (event) is the way to go. I'll listen with this device mode for a bit to see if it's still pausing.

 

[Roseval]

Event style indeed (older hardware might need push)

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Found the following interesting info thanks to @Roseval link:

On all operating systems, the DAC2 and DAC3 must be placed in USB AUDIO 2.0 mode to play DSD and high sample-rate PCM

The driver is not required for playback on recent versions of Windows 10 but adds features such as USB firmware updates and ASIO support.

Important: The USB mode on the DAC2 and DAC3 must then be set to USB AUDIO 2.0 MODE before completing the driver installation. Please note that the DAC ships with the USB mode set to the driverless USB AUDIO 1.1 MODE.

As long as you paid good money, you may as well take advantage of ASIO...

 

[sajunky]

Important: The USB mode on the DAC2 and DAC3 must then be set to USB AUDIO 2.0 MODE before completing the driver installation. Please note that the DAC ships with the USB mode set to the driverless USB AUDIO 1.1 MODE.

^^^This. These are obsolete defaults.

 

[Thaddy]

Found the following interesting info thanks to @Roseval link:

On all operating systems, the DAC2 and DAC3 must be placed in USB AUDIO 2.0 mode to play DSD and high sample-rate PCM

The driver is not required for playback on recent versions of Windows 10 but adds features such as USB firmware updates and ASIO support.

Important: The USB mode on the DAC2 and DAC3 must then be set to USB AUDIO 2.0 MODE before completing the driver installation. Please note that the DAC ships with the USB mode set to the driverless USB AUDIO 1.1 MODE.

As long as you paid good money, you may as well take advantage of ASIO...

I did this, and can play DSD and PCM files with no problem. The issue is after a period of time Foobar pauses/craps out and stops playing. I can get it to start up again by just clicking on the song I was listening to, however.

 

[sajunky]

I did this, and can play DSD and PCM files with no problem. The issue is after a period of time Foobar pauses/craps out and stops playing. I can get it to start up again by just clicking on the song I was listening to, however.

Follow this guide for setting up priority mode in ASIO and WASAPI amoung other things. I also see in your setup proxy driver. Uninstall if not using native DSD transfers. It requires a matching (older) version of Foobar and SACD plugin, a guide explains that.

I think you should start over with a clean install of the latest version of Foobar and plugins, it doesn't have support for DS (Direct Sound), WASAPI Shared is default and WASAPI plugin is not needed anymore. All WASAPI support is now built-in. You will find the 'event' option hidden in the Advanced section instead of listing as a separate output. The list of outputs will be less cluttered

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I did this, and can play DSD and PCM files with no problem. The issue is after a period of time Foobar pauses/craps out and stops playing. I can get it to start up again by just clicking on the song I was listening to, however.

Frustrating, hope you get it fixed shortly.

Do you have a streaming service or any other app you can try to see if it's between foobar and your Benchmark or a general issue?

 

[Thaddy]

Frustrating, hope you get it fixed shortly.

Do you have a streaming service or any other app you can try to see if it's between foobar and your Benchmark or a general issue?

I'm going to try WASAPI for a bit to see if that resolves the issue. I believe the issue is with Foobar or a component, because this doesn't happen with any other device modes.

 

[Thaddy]

I'm still unable to resolve this strange playback pausing issue. I've installed the most recent version of Foobar, and have tried starting from scratch with the WASAPI and ASIO components.

1. Uninstalled the WASAPI component
2. Uninstalled the ASIO component and Windows driver
3. Uninstalled the Benchmark drivers

From there, I reinstalled what I needed to get ASIO (and only) to work. Problem persists. I then uninstalled everything again and started from scratch with the WASAPI component. Again, the problem persists. I'm unable to view any logging from Foobar when the problem happens. The music simply stops after a random amount of time, but I can restart it again by just selecting the song again.

This is only an issue with ASIO and WASAPI. If I switch to Direct Sound then problem disappears however the sample rate seems to be fixed at 44.1.

 

[Roseval]

however the sample rate seems to be fixed at 44.1

Direct sound or WASAPI/Shared use the settings in the audio panel.
You have to change them manually.
https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Windows/Win7/AudioPanel.htm

Wonder if you still need to install the WASAPI component (or if you create probelems by doing so)
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/digital/pc-software/foobar-2000-for-dummies/

 

[sajunky]

This is only an issue with ASIO and WASAPI. If I switch to Direct Sound then problem disappears however the sample rate seems to be fixed at 44.1.

Wait... The latest Foobar do not support Direct Sound anymore. It is replaced with WASAPI Shared. Of course, it will play 44.1k, it is default settings of Windows Sound Control Panel. If you increase this value, sound might break at a higher sampling rate, the same way. Refer the previous post how to change settings and post results.

Check whether high priority is set for ASIO:
Playback -> Output -> ASIO

If you have installed WASAPI exclusive component, check the same for WASAPI
Advanced - > Playback - > (somewhere)

Or uninstall WASAPI component and use the output appended with word "(exclusive)".

If doesn't help, I suggest to uninstall Foobar, delete program folder and start over.

 

[Thaddy]

Wait... The latest Foobar do not support Direct Sound anymore. It is replaced with WASAPI Shared. Of course, it will play 44.1k, it is default settings of Windows Sound Control Panel. If you increase this value, sound might break at a higher sampling rate, the same way. Refer the previous post how to change settings and post results.

Check whether high priority is set for ASIO:
Playback -> Output -> ASIO

If you have installed WASAPI exclusive component, check the same for WASAPI
Advanced - > Playback - > (somewhere)

Or uninstall WASAPI component and use the output appended with word "(exclusive)".

If doesn't help, I suggest to uninstall Foobar, delete program folder and start over.

Yes, you're correct and I failed to mention that. No more Direct Sound in this version. I do however see the default output with (exclusive) listed, which seems to be stable and also displays the correct sample rate on my DAC3. I'm going to uninstall ASIO and WASAPI and test with this for a bit.

 

[desertsilver]

I've searched the thread but didn't find anything related, please let me know if it has been discussed before. I have a pretty big local HD holding my music and makes significant noise every time it spins up. I am trying to configurate Foobar2000 (the latest version): Read-ahead for local files(Kb) in Advanced settings, to at least 1G (with plenty of RAM, 1G is a good number for me even for some DSD content). My problem is that for setting "Read-ahead for local files(Kb)", no matter how big I set it, it changes to 16384. I think it might be an internal limit by design. The "Full file buffering up to (Kb)" setting is currently set to 1024000.

Is there a way I can set foobar to read up to 1G file content (as a full album, or all tracks in a single folder) at once and minimize local drive spin ups?

I know the "Prevent hard drive sleep while playing" setting, but I'd rather load the content at once and let the drive sleep as it's pretty noise any way.

There is a RAM-Disk component, but it's been 10 years old. Would it be the right way to solve my needs?

 

[Roseval]

I solved the noise problem this way.
As it is a USB HD, I attached it to my router, out of sight and out of hearing.
The router supports file sharing (SMB).