All questions in one place: PC-DAC-AMP bit-perfect

[admin_exported]

This forum gave me many invaluable informations about PC-based music in the last several months. However, my brain is frying now, and I desperately need some input from (to me) wery well known posters on this forum. So, long story made short:

I have a 2.5 years old Laptop FujitsuSiemens Amilo Li1705 with Intel Core Duo T2450 2.0 GHz, 1 GB RAM and 160 GB HDD, run by MS Windows XP Professional version 2002 Service Pack 3. Soundcard is VIA High Definition Audio (Compatible), and the graphic card is VIA Chrome9 HC IGP. I also have WiFi 'g' home network for surfing the net.

Laptop is connected to the old Kenwood Solid State Stereo Amplifier KA4000 (170W) via 3.5mm phono out to stereo RCA to the amp, and then to the Kenwood KL-555A 3-way 4 speaker system (2x90W speakers).

I have 69 GB of low-bitrate MP3 music, but already started with FLAC downloads through m-torrents. I have downloaded Foobar2000 v1.0 and it will be my preferred music player instead of Winamp and VLC media players. I plan to buy 1TB external HDD for storing the FLACs.

WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO IMPROVE MY SOUND? HERE IS WHAT I THINK I HAVE TO DO - PLEASE BE PATIENT IF SOME OF THE QUESTIONS ARE STUPID, AND PLEASE BE GENTLE WITH THE ANSWERS

1.OS: How to bypass Kernal Mixer? How can I find if my soundcard supports ASIO? Do I need ASIO or ASIO4ALL? I downloaded both, but don't know what to do after this? Will ASIO/ASIO4ALL disable volume control/DSP or shall I make it manually?

2.SOUNDCARD: What changes should I make in settings, and how can I be sure that it's STILL not resampling from 44.1 to 48 kHz? Will external DAC completely bypass the soundcard, or is there still a chance for resampling? My Laptop do not have coax or optical out, bit it has 3 USB ports, so I guess I will be limited to 16-bit music and could have potential brooming sounds if the power in my home is not sufficiently clean?

3.DAC OR LG BD390 + CONNECTIONS: I know external DAC like CA DacMagic is the obvious choice, but what do you think about Blu-Ray and media player like LG BD390 (in terms of functionality) for similar money? It has 24bit/192kHz upsampling which sounds good, has WiFi 'n' and is DLNA certified. How to conect PC to, say BD390 - USB, Ethernet or Wirelessly (can I stream 24-bit music through Ethernet and/or WiFi)? Do I still need to bypass KMixer if I stream wirelessly?

4.MUSIC SERVER/MUSIC PLAYER/WIRELESS STREAMING: Here I am totally confused. What is the basic difference between server and player? Asking at the LG shop, I have learned that BD390 comes with Nero MediaHome 4 Essentials server software, and now I don't know if I should use this server (and is it any good) or Foobar2000 player for music, or can I use both?

Sorry to be SO thick, but these questions are hanging over me for months, and I am already spending half of my working hours on these forums, so it must come to some finalisation somehow!

Thanks in advance,

Goran

 

[idc]

I would start by sorting the music as you appear to be doing by putting all into lossless FLAC on Foobar.

Then you need PJPros useful posts on bit perfect from a PC and ASIO and stuff. I will find a link.

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/271683/ShowThread.aspx#271683

Since you already used a wired connection from laptop to amp. the simplest would be for you to get a DAC and then laptop - USB - DAC - phonos (RCA) - amp. Or do you want a wireless connection?

As for music servers, you already have one, your laptop with Foobar on it. Other servers are specific for music and or audio visual. A music player, well I would say that is a source and amp and wirless streaming is as it says, you wirlessly transmit the signal between any combination of the internet, a hard drive, PC, DAc and amp.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

idc:
I would start by sorting the music as you appear to be doing by putting all into lossless FLAC on Foobar.

Then you need PJPros useful posts on bit perfect from a PC and ASIO and stuff. I will find a link.

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/271683/ShowThread.aspx#271683

Since you already used a wired connection from laptop to amp. the simplest would be for you to get a DAC and then laptop - USB - DAC - phonos (RCA) - amp. Or do you want a wireless connection?

As for music servers, you already have one, your laptop with Foobar on it. Other servers are specific for music and or audio visual. A music player, well I would say that is a source and amp and wirless streaming is as it says, you wirlessly transmit the signal between any combination of the internet, a hard drive, PC, DAc and amp.

I agree with IDC, don't even think about going the bluray player route. Get a DAC. As for Foobar, I use J River Media Center (Music, videos, photos etc) instead of Foobar which I've tried. It costs $50 but you can use the J River Jukebox which is free. These offer WASAPI or ASIO and you just tick which one you want to use from within the options. Don't worry about volume and kernel mixers, once you have WASAPI or ASIO working, these get bypassed.

So, basically, you need a DAC, a digital cable to connect DAC to laptop, an external hard drive.

 

[Anonymous]

1.OS: How to bypass Kernal Mixer? How can I find if my soundcard
supports ASIO? Do I need ASIO or ASIO4ALL? I downloaded both, but don't
know what to do after this? Will ASIO/ASIO4ALL disable volume
control/DSP or shall I make it manually?

On a XP machine you are better off using Kernel Streaming which several software players like Foobar support. Also any software player that allows you to select an audio renderer can make use of Slysoft's ReClock which can output via Kernel Streaming. Kernel Streaming should be supported by all external USB DACs that use the plug 'n' play Windows Driver Model standard.

2.SOUNDCARD: What
changes should I make in settings, and how can I be sure that it's
STILL not resampling from 44.1 to 48 kHz? Will external DAC completely
bypass the soundcard, or is there still a chance for resampling? My
Laptop do not have coax or optical out, bit it has 3 USB ports, so I
guess I will be limited to 16-bit music and could have potential
brooming sounds if the power in my home is not sufficiently clean?

In XP, ReClock will tell you what sample rate the audio is being rendered at on the sound card and if you are trying to send 16/44.1 using Kernel Streaming to a soundcard that only allows 16/48, you won't get any sound. An external USB DAC as far as the PC is concerned is essentially another sound card albeit one tailored for proper 2 channel audio. Some USB DACs do support 24/96 but you need to check before buying if this is required. There also ways of testing the Digital Ouput of a sound card but you need an external multichannel receiver and pass a 5.1 AC3/DTS file disguised a two channel wave file.

3.DAC
OR LG BD390 + CONNECTIONS: I know external DAC like CA DacMagic is the
obvious choice, but what do you think about Blu-Ray and media player
like LG BD390 (in terms of functionality) for similar money? It has
24bit/192kHz upsampling which sounds good, has WiFi 'n' and is DLNA
certified. How to conect PC to, say BD390 - USB, Ethernet or Wirelessly
(can I stream 24-bit music through Ethernet and/or WiFi)? Do I still
need to bypass KMixer if I stream wirelessly?

Stick to a dedicated 2 channel DAC,The only reason the LG upsamples is because its DAC has to support two channel 24/192 for DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD compatibility on Bluray. When you say streaming I assume you are meaning sharing files accross a network in which case audio is not being streamed just data, i.e the decoding is done by the receiver not the sender.

4.MUSIC
SERVER/MUSIC PLAYER/WIRELESS STREAMING: Here I am totally confused.
What is the basic difference between server and player? Asking at the
LG shop, I have learned that BD390 comes with Nero MediaHome 4
Essentials server software, and now I don't know if I should use this
server (and is it any good) or Foobar2000 player for music, or can I
use both?

A server essentially is just a device on the network that can store files, but some offer playback and streaming as well, but all depends what you want to do on your home network, stream to a PS3, store files and playback on a PC?

Sorry to be SO thick, but these questions are
hanging over me for months, and I am already spending half of my
working hours on these forums, so it must come to some finalisation
somehow!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your replies, people!

I have downloaded asio4all in program files, then downloaded the plugin from Foobar2000 components site, unzipped it, and put the dll file (foo_out_asio.dll) in the Foobar components folder. Then in file>preferences>output i selected asio4all v2.0 as output device. Little green icon (ASIO control panel) appeared on the task bar, and when opened I put the buffer bar to max (2048 samples). Other settings are as follows:

'Latency compensation' In: 32 samples, Out: 32 samples; 'Hardware Buffer' - checked, 'Buffer Offset': 10ms, 'Always resample 44.1kHz <-> 48kHz - unchecked; 'Force WDM Driver to 16 bit - unchecked. ARE THESE SETTINGS RIGHT?

Also, on the WDM Device List my soundcard is shown - VIA High Definition Audio (Compatible) - and it reads In: 2x48kHz, 16Bits, Out: 2x48kHz, 16Bits. NOW SOMETHING SMELLS INHERE. DOES THIS MEANS THAT MY SOUNDCARD IS UPSAMPLING TO 48kHz? ON THE OTHER SIDE, WHEN PLAYING FLACS IN FOOBAR, THE SAME ASIO CONTROL PANEL APPEARS READS 2048 SAMPLES, @44100Hz. WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?

 

[Anonymous]

Also, my volume controls in Windows are working - I thought they should be blocked?

 

[Anonymous]

The main volume control will always work (it has to) but the wave slider on XP will have no effect as that controls the kmixer output which you have bypassed.

I have not used the ASIO4ALL drivers very much as I always stuck to the ReClock Kernel Streaming solution in XP, but it could be that the HD audio is locked at 48khz and there is upsampling going on somewhere.

Do you have any option in the sound card control panel to change the sample rate for the card as that be the problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Damn it bendrumond, I am now trying to learn more about ReClock and make it work with foobar. I hope it should not conflict with asio in foobar.

This thread had too many questions for too many different topics, plus the questions and consequentely the answers were not focused. I think it is better to split the subjects in different threads.

Thank you once more;

Goran

 

[Anonymous]

ReClock is a direct show audio renderer and I don' think will work with Foobar.

However there is a Kernel Streaming plugin for Foobar that will work better.