[donunus]

dont know what madflac is

 

[xnor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus /img/forum/go_quote.gif dont know what madflac is

the flac decoder in the form of a direct show (= windows multimedia framework) filter

... every software developer's nightmare

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus /img/forum/go_quote.gif dont know what madflac is

KMP by default uses a funky FLAC decoding library(called BASS)...you could just delete all the DLL in the KMP folder and only keep "KIconLib.dll" and "PProcDLL.DLL", then go to its preferences, disable the built-in filters, and install madflac(Directshow FLAC decoder that does it all! 7.1/24bit/192kHz...you name it, it does it)..if you plan on trying upsampling, you can convert to 32float in ffdshow as this is what Reclock will convert to otherwise anyway(and staying 32float from start to end is better for lossy audio).
that's my setup(and you can use VST plugins in ffdshow if you like):

all these are freeware btw....the only thing that's missing is gapless, but I'm discussing w/ Casimir666(MPC-HC main coder) to extend seamless playback to FLAC/APE(it currently works for BD .m2ts files)

about upsampling sounding better, this guy has a lot to say about it(as long as you're using a "Sinc Interpolation" algorithm, like in Reclock..which is using the very same "Secret Rabbit Code" he's talking about): http://photos.imageevent.com/cics/v0...rts%20v0.3.pdf



strangely, the best external DAC's are those that reclock at 24/192(to kill jitter and increase filtering accuracy): http://www.camerahobby.com/Misc_DAC1.htm

anyway, what matters is that I like this setup very much, skeptics can just A/B against foobar

 

[donunus]

You should add on a tutorial here to set it up like youre doing

 

[xnor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif about upsampling sounding better, this guy has a lot to say about it(as long as you're using a "Sinc Interpolation" algorithm, like in Reclock..which is using the very same "Secret Rabbit Code" he's talking about): http://photos.imageevent.com/cics/v0...rts%20v0.3.pdf strangely, the best external DAC's are those that reclock at 24/192(to kill jitter and increase filtering accuracy): CameraHobby - Benchmark DAC-1 Review anyway, what matters is that I like this setup very much, skeptics can just A/B against foobar

oh really? that's what you said some time ago, about that guy's player:
Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif this is one of the most famous "better-than-bitperfect" audio players, these guys sound like they believe JC will come back anytime soon. foobar in KS/ASIO/WASAPI = bit-perfect...anything on top of that is ludicrous.

and also talked about his "extreme methods", and this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif when you start comparing bit-perfect audio renderers, something REALLY isn't right IMHO

... /wallbash

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus /img/forum/go_quote.gif You should add on a tutorial here to set it up like youre doing

setting it up is half the fun, and the upsampling frequency/bitdepth is very much hardware dependent..my setup sounds better in 32bit/192kHz...it could be 24/96 on other systems, as my AK4396 DAC is known to do 128X oversampling up to 216kHz, the PCM1792A found in the Asus ST/STX cannot do more than 64X over 96kHz.

and one MAJOR added value of ffdshow over foobar is that you can set up automatic profiles for MP3/FLAC/stereo/5.1 w/ different settings, foobar *doesn't* allow automatic profiles...they expect you to change them by hand, how dumb is this...I asked for it as a feature request ages ago on their moronic forum, but they declined it

and well, you can do everything you could possibly think of...like custom mixing matrixes for 5.1>stereo downmix, VST/DX/winamp plugins, EQ, FIR filter, convolver, noise reduction, reverb, and all kind of filtering...ffdshow is really killer!

 

[donunus]

cmon, post a basic tutorial so that we know where to start with what you're talking about. I'll experiment starting from there

All the stuff you are talking about is foreign to me right now as I'm sure it is to many of the readers so a basic starting point would be great!

 

[leeperry]

hehe, you'll regret getting into this because ffdshow and Reclock are *highly* addictive

well, install madflac, install ffdshow from here: ffdshow tryouts project (x86/x64) - XvidVideo.RU

install Reclock beta 55 as well and set it like this:

if your audio card doesn't allow 192kHz or 32bit, lower them of course.

kill all the DLL in the KMP folder as mentioned above, set Reclock as the default audio renderer in KMP and disable the "audio transform filter"...you should only have madflac and Reclock in the active filters list when playing a FLAC file.
if you wanna use ffdshow on top, in its config you need to do this :

also disable FLAC above in that list, so madflac takes over...and at the bottom of the ffdshow audio config, in the "output section" uncheck everything except "32 bit floating point".

all I can say is that I've never heard my Bjork CD's from some close...granted I've pimped my soundcard w/ burson's, but still foobar had something boring and colored to it..and the stereo imaging is just BETTER like this

and that's only for audio, the real point of using Reclock is getting butter smooth movies in 24/48Hz.

 

[donunus]

Thanks... I'll stay away from this until after the vacation. You know my paranoia when it comes to these things... if you remember our crossfeed chat hehehe

--------BOOKMARKED--------------

 

[donunus]

Leeperry,

As for now can you tell me what you think of xmplay using asio and J river media center using asio/wasapi compared to your hardcore discovery above? They sound better to me with my setup than the kmplayer using the settings given on the first page of this thread

 

[leeperry]

I'm on XP and my soundcard only does DS/MME and KS...xmplay doesn't allow custom downmix matrixes so it's a deal breaker for me. foobar does, but I had to annoy its plugin coder to get a version that leaves stereo untouched(considering you cannot set automatic profiles), heh foobar is such a pain.

I've been using Reclock since forever for movies on my DLP projector...what is killer is that James finally agreed to include oversampling and allow an audio-only mode w/o buffering

MPC also has a very good sounding MP3 decoder that you can force to decode in 32float(you can also use it in KMP if you like):

 

[leeperry]

anyway, there's also the "full file buffering up to" in the advanced foobar option...there you can set a high value so foobar will cache the file in RAM(less jitter than from a HDD?

), that's the tactic cMP and Amarra use anyway.

to be perfectly honest, I think I got bored of the 32/192 upsampled Reclock sound...it's brighter and maybe more accurate to the "analog" recording(as the PDF quoted above says), I'm not sure

whatever op-amp rolling or funky PC settings, I always get bored of them after a while...and it seems that some of these high end player(XXHighEnd?) only allows 32bit output, but that's really not a good choice IMO...because the audio drivers will need to convert to 24bit afterwards...and each integer>integer conversion is very lossy. It's clearly audible that when I output 32bit, sound is brighter than at 16/24bit....it's nice for a while to get that sparkling uppper spectrum, but it gets odd after a while.

ah well, I really don't wanna live w/o gapless anyway(gee, we're not in the 80's anymore), I'll run foobar/KS(bit-perfect 24bit) w/ full file buffering in foobar for a while and see what happens

PS: humm 24/192 sounds really awesome in movies w/ Reclock, 32bit really makes no sense...

PPS: haha the SQ difference between Reclock and foobar is really shocking...even w/ both 16/44.1 bit-perfect

 

[donunus]

now I like foobar more than itunes again

I guess it depends on my mood on which sound I prefer and I dont know which is more accurate to the source but what I know that is consistent is that foobar is more laid back than itunes and has a softer midbass attack

 

[leeperry]

I've been brainwashed on french forums that foobar in KS was bit-perfect(double/triple checked by pro sound engineers)...so SQ would/should be identical in all the bit-perfect players! boy oh boy, I've compared foobar and Reclock in 100% bit-perfect 44.1/16 KS many times these past days...and they REALLY don't sound identical!

foobar sounds mushy/agressive/bass-shy, this is really unbearable...Reclock has a much deeper bass/clearer trebles/cleaner SS, this cannot be my imagination as many other ppl hear different stuff too..and even the XXHighEnd coder measured foobar's jitter pattern.

Sonic is selling Amarras for $1K, and all the ppl who hear it are simply BLOWN AWAY..they say it saved them from some major hardware upgrade, I would have no problem saying the same...my bottleneck clearly wasn't hardware based.

 

[donunus]

I believe you.. but sometimes you know some cans like the crappier sounding cd transport or in this case the crappier sounding media player of choice for better synergy