Hello everyone, this is my first post on the Forum.
I spent a couple of day's earlier this week looking at ways of improving the music sound quality from my pc through the hifi and discovered asio4all and after a bit of trial and error got it up and running.
Fr0g is right the asio4all driver and software only works when it is set up through a plugin within the music player software. From my research only Winamp and foobar2000 have asio plugins. Any increase in sound quality through wmp 11, itunes, etc is not through just installing asio4all. Heres an excellent site for setting up asio4all for audio playback:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/asio4all-explanation-221237/
The asio4all box on your pc should be setup the same as the 2nd asioforall desktop box in the guide. This is important as your music will hiss, crackle and pop and you'll think something has broken - I did.
I use winamp with the japanese developed plugin - the one direct from the winamp site didn't work for me (but you should try both). A direct download link is available on the following site, it's roughly halfway down (under the green box with japanese writing!). Save the dll and move it to your winamp plugins folder, should be similar to C
😛rograms/winamp/plugins.
http://www.aqvox.de/Asio-USB-Audio-installation-e.htm
To fully set up in winamp you go to preferences - plugins - output, double click on asio output, select asio4all. Then in the resampling box set the sample rate to 44100hz, once done press close and restart winamp, play a track and the sound should hopefully, fingers crossed be much improved. it is through my hifi. It is correctly set up when the volume control within winamp has no effect when adjusted.
To set up foobar2000 follow the instruction on the head-fi.org page. Ive tried both winamp and foobar2000 and the sound is equal to my ears, I just prefer the gui of winamp.
The primary function of the asio driver (either asio4all or dedicated asio drivers) is to help reduce latency when recording musical instruments, ie. reduce the delay from when you strum your guitar to the sound coming out of your pc speakers. WDM drivers as supplied by microsoft are not good enough for professional recordings hence the development of the asio driver. The bonus is that it improves the playback sound for us hifi buffs.
Dedicated asio drivers are usually supplied with audio interfaces (professional quality soundcards - m-audio, e-mu, behringer, edirol etc) either on the cd or downloaded from the manufacturers website. If you have one of these you shouldnt need asio4all but would need winamp or foobar2000 plus plugin. I am tempted to get one of the budget usb audio interfaces but most of the reviews only mention recording quality and not playback so unsure if they would drastically improve the sound through the hifi. Does anyone on the forum have any experience of using these as soundcards?
Anyhow heres the wikipedia link explaining what asio is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_stream_input_output
The asio4all website has good advice too.
Back to helping zenezene with his poor sound, your best bet is to buy an external usb soundcard and set up asio4all. Laptops are notorious for having poor quality sound so any external card should improve the sound not just the above mentioned audio interfaces. I'd try this method first as all the software is free and if you shop around a budget external soundcard can be has for around £15-20. If this doesn't work then look at your speakers etc.
Also regardless of software, plugins etc keep the volume of your pc at around 50% and use your amp to adjust volume. It's known as the
"unity gain" effect, guess what heres another link!
http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-help-downloads-how-to-play-downloads-on-your-computer.aspx#volume
Apologies if this reply seems a little long winded but I hope it helps sort out some of the confusion but it probably just add's to it!.