[WGH]

As far as I know, there is no way to get iTunes or WMP to use ASIO.

You have much to learn.

Follow my directions, it works...really.

[James Tanner]

I agree, ASIO is one of the best ways of doing PC audio, but that means you can't use iTunes or Windows Media Player, which don't support ASIO.

An interesting experiment that costs less than $100 would be to see if using the M-Audio Transit optical output improves the sound. M-Audio wrote its own ASIO drivers.

I use the Transit for my computer based home theater because it can also output a true AC-3 5.1 Dolby Digital signal, unfortunately my AVA Insight DAC does not have an optical input and the Technics SH-AC500D digital surround processor is too low-res for any meaningful comparison.

In Windows, set the default output device to the M-Audio Transit and listen to iTunes and WiMP using the ASIO drivers.



Wayne 

Hi Wayne,

I am still being educated here but I do have another system in my larger soundroom using this M-Audio Card on a Windows Server Music System

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile192.html


James

[satfrat]

If the Asio icon isn't showing up in the lower right toolbox when you're using a player, then Asio isn't working. I use my M-audio Revolution 7 sound card using Asioforall thru my J-River using a Crystal Cable digital cable and while this sounds damn good, it doesn't compare when using an Empirical Off-Ramp 3 with Superclock 4(for ultralow jitter) and using a Locus Design Nucleus USB cable and the same Cyrstal Cable digital cable. I personally don't like optical cables, there's simply more "body" from an  ultragood digital cable for my tastes.




Cheers,
Robin

[Watson]

As far as I know, there is no way to get iTunes or WMP to use ASIO.

You have much to learn.

Follow my directions, it works...really.

You're confusing the use of an ASIO driver with ASIO actually being used by the software.

I'm not going to waste time arguing with you on this. This is why PC audio is such a mess. If you were to measure your actual bit output (hint: I have, on a variety of different hardware configurations), you'll most likely find that you're not getting bit-perfect audio.

[WGH]

I am not confusing the use of an ASIO driver with ASIO actually being used by the software, everyone knows iTunes and WiMP does not natively support ASIO, this is a workaround or kludge (if you prefer). I tossed it out as a possible experiment and an alternate way to use ASIO with the above mentioned software.

For everyone else: The M-Audio Transit is a outboard devise that connects to a USB port and converts the USB signal to toslink.



I am sure it does not sound as good as Robin's setup.

But in regards to using the M-Audio ASIO drivers with iTunes or WiMP, it can be done and works perfectly.



Wayne

[racerxnet]

ASIO plug in for WMP..


http://sourceforge.net/projects/asiowmpplg/

[NewBuyer]

ASIO plug in for WMP..


http://sourceforge.net/projects/asiowmpplg/

Thanks for linking this! 

[wkatzir]

Hello All -

     I just got the BDA-1 today and already, without any substantial break-in period, it has made a huge difference!  I know it will only get better.  Just wondering, what have you experienced in terms of the units break in time?  Also, any mods or tweaks that I should know about?

-W

[denjo]

Hello All -

     I just got the BDA-1 today and already, without any substantial break-in period, it has made a huge difference!  I know it will only get better.  Just wondering, what have you experienced in terms of the units break in time?  Also, any mods or tweaks that I should know about?

-W

wkatzir

Congrats on your investment in the BDA-1! Although I don't own the BDA-1, the B100 DA sounded good right out of the box but I only heard its full potential about 6 to 7 months later, not sure how long that translates to hours of use.

Best Regards
Dennis

[werd]

Hello All -

     I just got the BDA-1 today and already, without any substantial break-in period, it has made a huge difference!  I know it will only get better.  Just wondering, what have you experienced in terms of the units break in time?  Also, any mods or tweaks that I should know about?

-W

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=64807.0

The tweak works and gives the dac more weight without loss of dynamics.

[werd]

As good as the bda-1 is out of the box, i believe it needs to be sitting on a good platform or stand to reach its full potential. The dac sounds a little thin imo. That tweak is a very inexpensive alternative to a symposium platform or something of the sort. Still an amazing dac none the less. Sitting on symposium ultra platform, in my estimate you wouldnt  get a better sounding dac at any cost.

[bob stern]

The SRC4392 in the BDA-1 does a better job upsampling then the audio system on the mac does in software. It could be better choice of algorithm in the 4392, it could be the mac using single precision floats for the resampling (they would need double precision float to match the 28 bit fixed point that the 4392 uses), or it could be some combination of the two.

OS X Core Audio uses 32-bit floating point (page 10):
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MusicAudio/Conceptual/CoreAudioOverview/CoreAudioOverview.pdf

[ian.ameline]

OS X Core Audio uses 32-bit floating point (page 10):
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MusicAudio/Conceptual/CoreAudioOverview/CoreAudioOverview.pdf

I know -- and 32 bit floating point has *less* precision than 28 bit fixed point (that the 4392 uses for intermediate results of its calculations), for the range of interest -- 0.0 to 1.0 -- and is insufficient precision for resampling 24 bit fixed point data.

A 32 bit floating point number has 23 bits of fraction, 8 bits of exponent, and 1 sign bit -- not every number that can be represented in 0.24 fixed point can be represented in s23e8 float format -- in fact, fully half of the valid discrete values of a 0.24 number cannot be losslessly represented by a single precision float.

-- Ian

[bob stern]

The CS4398 DAC specs for distortion+noise relative to a full scale 997 Hz sine wave is -107 dB, which is (107-2)/6 = 17.5-bit resolution.  At -20 dB the distortion+noise spec is -97 dB, which implies resolution relative to full scale of 117 dB, which is 115/6 = 19-bit resolution.

Since the DAC chip has only 19-bit resolution (add another half-bit for two DAC's used in balanced mode), it is unclear whether a difference between 27 and 28 bit precision in the SRC interpolation filter will be audible.  I expect a difference in the SRC algorithm would be more important than the 1-bit difference in precision.

[James Tanner]

Hi all,

It has been my experience that the differences between digital component 'A' vs digital component 'B' is small in the total picture.

We found things like low jitter design, dual power supply design, separate power suppies for analog and digital sections, separate ground planes for analog and digital signal paths, discrete Class A analog circuitry, dual DAC's  etc. is far more important if quality sound is ultimately what your after.

james

[werd]

Hi all,

It has been my experience that the differences between digital component 'A' vs digital component 'B' is small in the total picture.

We found things like low jitter design, dual power supply design, separate power suppies for analog and digital sections, separate ground planes for analog and digital signal paths, discrete Class A analog circuitry, dual DAC's  etc. is far more important if quality sound is ultimately what your after.

james

Anything else u want to add ....i am building my own.... . 

[alexone]

Hi all,

It has been my experience that the differences between digital component 'A' vs digital component 'B' is small in the total picture.

We found things like low jitter design, dual power supply design, separate power suppies for analog and digital sections, separate ground planes for analog and digital signal paths, discrete Class A analog circuitry, dual DAC's  etc. is far more important if quality sound is ultimately what your after.

james

Anything else u want to add ....i am building my own.... . 

Werd,

...what do you mean if you say ''i am building  my own'' ??


al.

[James Tanner]

Hi all,

It has been my experience that the differences between digital component 'A' vs digital component 'B' is small in the total picture.

We found things like low jitter design, dual power supply design, separate power suppies for analog and digital sections, separate ground planes for analog and digital signal paths, discrete Class A analog circuitry, dual DAC's  etc. is far more important if quality sound is ultimately what your after.

james

Anything else u want to add ....i am building my own.... . 

Werd,

...what do you mean if you say ''i am building  my own'' ??


al.

Hi Alex,

I think he meant with all that information we are giving our secrets away and he can now build his own.

james

[werd]

Hi all,

It has been my experience that the differences between digital component 'A' vs digital component 'B' is small in the total picture.

We found things like low jitter design, dual power supply design, separate power suppies for analog and digital sections, separate ground planes for analog and digital signal paths, discrete Class A analog circuitry, dual DAC's  etc. is far more important if quality sound is ultimately what your after.

james

Anything else u want to add ....i am building my own.... . 

Werd,

...what do you mean if you say ''i am building  my own'' ??


al.

Hi Alex,

I think he meant with all that information we are giving our secrets away and he can now build his own.

james

Pretty much ....instead of it saying Bryston it'll be a Werd dac and i'll charge about 4k for it.... lol

[alexone]

Hi all,

It has been my experience that the differences between digital component 'A' vs digital component 'B' is small in the total picture.

We found things like low jitter design, dual power supply design, separate power suppies for analog and digital sections, separate ground planes for analog and digital signal paths, discrete Class A analog circuitry, dual DAC's  etc. is far more important if quality sound is ultimately what your after.

james

Anything else u want to add ....i am building my own.... . 

Werd,

...what do you mean if you say ''i am building  my own'' ??


al.

Hi Alex,

I think he meant with all that information we are giving our secrets away and he can now build his own.

james

....and even if anyone of 'us' would know all your secrets we would never reach the same stage.

 a Bryston is a Bryston!

may the sound be with you!

al.