[Elephas]

Many members seem to be using foobar ASIO or kernal streaming with WinXP PCs. I've also had excellent results using foobar and a 1212M's optical outputs connected to an external DAC.

Using iTunes on WinXP, sound quality isn't as good as foobar ASIO through the 1212m. PatchMix and/or the Windows kmixer seem to be the reason for the lower quality.

To improve iTunes sound quality, I added an AirPort Express and connected it to an external DAC. This sounds better than than going through the 1212m.

My CEC DA53 also has USB inputs. Using the plug-and-play Windows USB audio codec also resulted in substandard sound with iTunes. Then I tried the USB ASIO driver from Ploytec (www.usb-audio.com) and was pleasantly surprised by the improvement. Sound quality seems equal to or better than the AirPort Express optical output or foobar through the 1212m.

I'm interested if owners of other USB DACs such as the AQVOX, Corda Aria, Porta Corda MkIII USB, HeadRoom MicroDAC or Firestone Fubar II have tried using the USB ASIO driver or other alternatives such as ASIO4ALL.

Ploytec provides demo downloads of Windows and Mac versions of their USB ASIO driver (http://www.usb-audio.com/download.html). The demo version has an annoying beep every 30 seconds that is removed when registered.

 

[blessingx]

Hmmm, that the first OS X ASIO driver I've ever hear of. Question is why is it necessary there (with CoreAudio)? It's either a typo or (possibly what the image indicates) for classic/OS 9 and before mode. Downloaded the install, but the read me has no useful info. Anyone have any idea on the Mac side?

 

[shuurajou]

I currently own a new Corda ARIA - unfortunately it does no support using Kernal Streaming with Foobar so I'm looking for the best alternative and how to set this up.

If you could make any recommendations and hwo to impliment them I'd be happy to give you my results.

 

[Elephas]

Using the CEC DA53 and USB ASIO driver, both kernal streaming and ASIO (exe version) works on foobar 0.8.3. The sound quality through USB input is excellent. The convenience of USB allows me to move the CEC DA53 from PC to PC and get the same level of quality on each machine.

The USB ASIO driver has a demo version available for download. I suggest trying it with the Corda Aria.