Laptop / DAC setup

[Brazilianhipster]

Over the last year or so ago, I have moved away from listening to CDs to now listening to ripped CDs and high quality music downloads. I appreciate good sounding music. Where I struggle is with the technical set up! I have a few questions which I would be greatly appreciative if you could guide me.

I’ve recently invested in a DAC player (an irDAC made by ARCAM). I connect the DAC to my laptop (running Windows 7) using a high quality USB cable.

At the moment, all my music files are stored on the hard drive of my laptop. Over time, I will transfer these to an external hard drive storage device. I use Foobar200 as my preferred audio player.

Here are the question/s I have:

When playing music (using foobar2000) from my laptop connected to the DAC, are my laptop’s sound card / drivers (I’m not even sure it’s got a sound card, all it says is that is has an IDT High Definition Audio CODEC) being used? Or is the music being bypassed from the IDT High Definition Audio CODEC and straight to the DAC (which I assume has a sound card?).

If my understanding is incorrect, and the sound in fact does go via the laptops soundcard / driver set-up, what would be the best way to upgrade the music prior to it getting to the DAC? I’ve read that the soundcards / drivers on standard laptop are not much cop! I guess if the sound does not go via the soundcard / driver this question is obsolete.

I am concerned that I’ve invested money on the DAC and USB etc and the sound quality is being let down due to the hardware on the laptop. Is there anything else I can do that will improve my current set up?

Thanks in advance

 

[pauln]

As your dac is connected via usb the soundcard (the IDT codec) in the laptop will be bypassed provided you select the dac as the ouput in foobar preferences. What do you have plugged into the dac - headphones, amp, active speakers? You don't say in your post...

 

[Brazilianhipster]

Pauln, connected to the DAC is an amplifier (Rega Brio-R). What would come up in the foobar preferences when I connect the DAC?

 

[SteveR750]

I'm not familiar with the specific details of using Foobar, but the principle is the same for all media players, including J River MC that I use.

The first consideration is whether your media player can take exclusive control of your PC "soundcard", which encompasses all audio output modes, be it USB or Optical. Foobar I belive can be configured to do this, but you'll need to read through its set up instructions to configure it properly, or ask that specific question of other forum members.

The second thing that you need to do is configure the output settings in windows 7, simply left click your mouse over the speaker icon in the task tray and open up "playback devices". Highlight the option you are using (this will normally be the DAC you are using so make sure it is connected and powered up and all relevant drivers installed if that's what it requires); and click "Properties". Under the next screen, click on "Advanced" and check the boxes that allow this programme to take exclusive control.

So long as your Foobar is configured to now use this audio setting; for example, when I use J River I open up the audio settings box and there is a drop down menu giving me the option of using the built in speakers, an optical WASAPI output if a toslink cable is connected, a cambridge audio ASIO driver when the dacmagic plus is connected. I simply select the one for my system set up, which is dacmagic plus ASIO driver. You don't need to understand the differences between things like WASAPI and ASIO, just that you select the right one that matches to the DAC you are using.

Once set up is complete, you should in theory be able to stream your music from Foobar bypassing all of the windows resaqmpling and kernel mixing (this is a process that undertakes the resampling and mixes all of the audio together, so you can hear system sounds such as email alerts, faceboom alerts etc when playing you tube videos for example - this is not what you want for optimum sound quality out of your PC!)

Difficult without pictures I know, but I'm sure if you google each step, there will be online guides to help you - you tube is really helpful for stuff like this.

Try searching for "Setting up foobar for bit perfect playback", and "configuring wondows for but perfect audio" and see what you find.

 

[pauln]

I don't know as I don't have that dac but it should be obvious enough, it will be different to IDT blah blah codec and if you unplug the dac it will no longer show on the list.

Check also that the dac is showing up in Windows by going to control panel > sound > playback. You may or maynot need drivers for that particular dac - some do some don't. Maybe someone who has one will chip in with some help...

 

[SteveR750]

Win7 and 8 will probably work in USB 1.0 mode using the native driver, but the SQ is massively improved using USB 2.0 for async data transmission so the DAC controls the timing, not the PC clock. To use USB 2.0 you would have too install the proprietry driver that comes with the DAC (usually a download off their website).

 

[Brazilianhipster]

My current setup is Laptop (has 2 No. USB 2.0 ports) – USB 2.0 cable – irDAC – amplifier – speakers

As my laptop supports USB 2.0, I wish to use the USB II facility. I am aware that USB II software is required to be downloaded and installed onto my laptop.

At the moment, when I connect the irDAC to the laptop, switch the irDAC to USB II, and visit the device manager, the device manager states that there is an issue with the ARCAM USB Audio 2.0 driver. In the driver details box, it reads ‘This device cannot start (Code 10).

I’ve tried downloading the software from the ARCAM website. When I follow the instructions and try and open up the setup application (i.e. the black and white computer screen icon) nothing happens. I was expecting the driver download dialogue box to open. Am I to uninstall the driver that currently exists and then trying to download the USB 2.0 driver?

Also, as I am not able to use the USB II set up, I’ve got it running set up in the USB I. Whilst using Foobar2000, when no track is playing the USB light on the front of the irDAC is red. When I hit play the light turns to green. However, when I select the next track or move the play bar slider (i.e. moving the track along), the irDAC clicks, goes red and then turns green when the tracks starts playing again. Is this due to the drivers? Or is it something else?

Any adivce would be much wlecome as I'm keen as mustard to get going!

Cheers

 

[SteveR750]

It should be pretty straightforward.

Whe you configure Foobar, can you see an output device called Arcam or similar? For example, when I open up the options within J River, I can select from a menu of output devices, one of which is "Cambridge Audio DM+ ASIO" which is the driver I downloaded and installed. If you did the same with Arcam, it should show the driver, providing you have opened and installed the driver file correctly (so this might be your problem, solution unistall and try again).

The other thing that might help (as I don't know how foobar works, never tried it) is to open up the playback devices menu. With the Arcam connected, right click on the speaker icon in the task tray (bottom right), and open "playback devices" from the pop up menu. If the arcam driver is correctly installed, you should see it as an optional output device. Try selecting it and setting as the default.