do linux or mac play music better than windows?

[DVDdoug]

ASIO is mostly for audio production. Most consumer applications don't support it. (foobar2000 DOES have an ASIO add-on or plug-in.)

It was developed for low latency (low delay). Low latency is desirable when you are recording while monitoring yourself with headphones where a noticeable delay makes it hard to perform.

A few milliseconds of latency not too important when you're playing a 60-year old Beatles recording or something you recorded a minute ago.

It also doesn't allow re-sampling (at least not normally or easily) That's an advantage if you want bit perfect* audio. It's a disadvantage if you want to play a 24-bit/192kHz file on a cheap soundcard that only plays 16/44.1. (The regular Windows drivers will take care of any conversions without telling you.)

ASIO4ALL "adapts" regular Windows hardware (soundcards & audio interfaces with regular Windows drivers) to work with ASIO applications. But if you have hardware with only ASIO drivers (very rare) it doesn't work the other way to adapt your ASIO hardware to work with a regular Windows application.









* To me bit-perfect audio is more like "insurance". If you have a bit-perfect setup, you know the audio isn't getting altered digitally in any way. (That's assuming no dropouts or "glitches".) Normally you can re-sample (within reason) and it sounds the same to the human ear. I don't worry about the digital audio being bit-perfect... I worry about the analog & acoustic side.

 

[tw99]

Cheked the calendar, yes it is 2024 indeed. Debates about difference in sound quality between OS sounds so very much 2010.
All OS do have their options to bypass the OS audio. Be is WASAPI/Exclusive, hogmode, HWx, etc.
As they all can be configured to deliver bit perfect output, they all sound the same

Totally agree with you.

Sadly there are still many sites out there promoting imagined differences such as the "organic, natural sound" of Apple compared to "brittle, overly transparent" Windows, or whatever.

 

[Berwhale]

Cheked the calendar, yes it is 2024 indeed. Debates about difference in sound quality between OS sounds so very much 2010.
All OS do have their options to bypass the OS audio. Be is WASAPI/Exclusive, hogmode, HWx, etc.
As they all can be configured to deliver bit perfect output, they all sound the same

Indeed, and once you understand what happens when a transducer (speaker, headphone, etc.) gets hold of your 'perfect bits', you might wonder what the point in chasing them was in the first place.

Also see Circle of Confusion

 

[wwenze]

ASIO is for playing music/rhythm games

 

[Ron Texas]

What?

 

[Audiofire]

ASIO is for any audio and necessary for DSD, but not all programs are coded to use ASIO.

 

[Keith_W]

Sadly there are still many sites out there promoting imagined differences such as the "organic, natural sound" of Apple compared to "brittle, overly transparent" Windows, or whatever.

I would have thought it would be "crunchy, sweet, slightly tart, with the occasional worm" sound of Apple vs. "glassy, transparent, brittle, and shattering" sound of Windows. At least with Windows you can lift veils and marvel at the inky blackness?

 

[Audiofire]

Palpable sense of imaging in the sound!

 

[Mantra]

hi
have you tried Flexasio and FlexASIO UII ?

A flexible universal ASIO driver that uses the PortAudio sound I/O library. Supports WASAPI (shared and exclusive), KS, DirectSound and MME.

a friend of mine told me about it , since he works with ableton and should work with audio software player for windows

 

[Sokel]

You can use foobar and:
ASIO+DSD plug in along with SACD plug in to play everything
SoX mod1 and mod2 to resample anything if you want to keep it to the family (44.1 or 48Khz)
Mathaudio for EQ which strangely supports all the above (no DSD though)

No messing with windows needed,plays anything in it's rate (if not engage it's resampler) ,etc.

All gathered in one place and simple.