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- May 27, 2020
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I registered just to weigh in on this one.. ASIO (using ASIO4All) sounds completely different than WASAPI and DirectSound. In my experience this is regardless of what hardware you’re using, and it’s easy to test for yourself. Don’t even bother trying to find ASIO drivers, just use ASIO4All as it works with everything, including built in sound cards in ten year old laptops. The biggest material difference right off the bat is gain. If I play the same FLAC file through Foobar using WASAPI/DirectSound, the volume is consistent. Flip output to ASIO using ASIO4ALL, 9-12db louder.
i don’t know why this is, but it’s consistent whether I’m using my main system (Computer —> Wadia 121 —> Classe CAP-151), desktop (PC —> Musiland Monitor 02US —> Klipsch THX Promedia) or any combination of headphones and miscellaneous USB dacs I’ve collected. I prefer the ASIO sound, not sure if getting the extra gain up front is why or not. I’d actually love for someone to replicate my findings and help explain them so that it wasn’t a mystery to me. I’d also like to add a +1 to the person who said that when using WASAPI/DirectSound that the bit and sampling rates seem to stay consistent (which implies resampling ((not bit perfect)). Whereas when I use ASIO, if I play a 24/192 file or just use a Foobar add-on to upsample manually I’m met with a satisfying CLICK on my Wadia indicating that it’s locked into the elevated file.
For consistencies sake, if you’re gonna try this, make sure you have track and album gain disabled in Foobar.
A true Scooby Doo mystery imo, Amir?
i don’t know why this is, but it’s consistent whether I’m using my main system (Computer —> Wadia 121 —> Classe CAP-151), desktop (PC —> Musiland Monitor 02US —> Klipsch THX Promedia) or any combination of headphones and miscellaneous USB dacs I’ve collected. I prefer the ASIO sound, not sure if getting the extra gain up front is why or not. I’d actually love for someone to replicate my findings and help explain them so that it wasn’t a mystery to me. I’d also like to add a +1 to the person who said that when using WASAPI/DirectSound that the bit and sampling rates seem to stay consistent (which implies resampling ((not bit perfect)). Whereas when I use ASIO, if I play a 24/192 file or just use a Foobar add-on to upsample manually I’m met with a satisfying CLICK on my Wadia indicating that it’s locked into the elevated file.
For consistencies sake, if you’re gonna try this, make sure you have track and album gain disabled in Foobar.
A true Scooby Doo mystery imo, Amir?