[rrthuss]

Hi all,

I've been trying to tweak and found the MAD mp3decoder input decoder seems to improve winamp.  Running directsound2 out ... I can't seem to get kernal streaming or the asio output dlls to work.  Went back to foobar 0.8.3 but I need another copy of SRC because I lost the empirical disk that came with my offramp ... but even using directsound2 0.8.3 sounds good. 

I'm too lazy and busy to hunt cds etc so I find myself streaming music via winamp and shoutcast and I have a subscription to Yahoo musicmatch or whatever it's called and the decoding there seems lacking to me.  Is there a way to add a plugin to foobar to stream?  Does anyone know of a subscription type server that has decent encoding/decoding? 

Finally, I'm using a northstar dac that I still need to send to Steve for tweaking with my offramp ... but before I do that ... anyone have ideas on whether there are real gains from going to another DAC like the Northstar extremo or other DACS. 

System:  Empirical to Northstar out to YBA 1a Pre to YBA 1a monoblocks or Audibile Illusions Mod3A into Bedini 25/25 1 meg into various speakers (Essence Gems, Reynaud Trentes or Offrandes, Nuforce S-9s). 

Happy listening,

Rob

[audioengr]

Rob - send me an email and I'll send you SRC for Foobar 0.8.3.

Unfortunately I dont mod the Extremo anymore.  I only modded a couple of them.  Pain in the neck!

If you use ASIO, then you must use ASIO in Foobar output, not DirectSound2.

Steve N.

[rrthuss]

Thanks Steve,

My email addy is rrthuss@msn.com.  Since I need to pick up a second empirical/dac set up, are there any new DACS coming out to consider?  My first thought on the current DACS would probably be a Benchmark. 

I'm still trying to figure out if Foobar can stream the way Winamp does via some plugin ... or whether another player like JRiver warrants consideration. 

Lastly, does the propietary USB driver I see for sale online help matters any?  Would it support the offramp?  Does it improve things? 

My email addy is rrthuss@msn.com. 

Rob

[audioengr]

Thanks Steve,

My email addy is rrthuss@msn.com.  Since I need to pick up a second empirical/dac set up, are there any new DACS coming out to consider?  My first thought on the current DACS would probably be a Benchmark. 

I would recommend the Daytona DAC.  It will outperform most DAC's on the market and you dont need a preamp.  It will be available after RMAF in Oct.  Price target is $1999 for basic and options of:
1) battery supply
2) coupling cap upgrade
3) point-to-point wiring inside
4) Superclock4 for USB interface

I'm still trying to figure out if Foobar can stream the way Winamp does via some plugin ... or whether another player like JRiver warrants consideration. 

If you are using XP, then Jriver is a great choice.  You can run unmapped.  Good GUI.

I dont know what you mean by "the way that Winamp does streaming".  Foobar streams just fine for me, but I dont use FLAC or AIFF etc., just .wav.

Lastly, does the propietary USB driver I see for sale online help matters any?  Would it support the offramp?  Does it improve things? 

I think it might make it worse.  The new firmware on the Off-Ramp Turbo 2 uses the lowest latency parts of the Windows driver and because its 24-bit,  it is bit perfect on Vista.  For XP, I recommend unmapping or Kernel Streaming to insure bit-perfect.

I use:

Foobar 0.8.3, SRC and Directsound2 and I unmap

You can also use Jriver and unmap

Steve N.

[rrthuss]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the software email.  I am trying out JRiver with asio unmapped and will try foobar as recommended and compare.  What I meant by streaming is that for convenience sake I often play online sources like shoutcast stations with higher biterate mp3 streams and I don't know how to configure foobar to use a service like shoutcast.  I'd been using winamp and now that I have JRiver running it supports shoutcast icecast etc.  KEXP, I think it is, streams uncompressed radio 1.4 mps but it only seems to support the stream in WMP or Real.  I'm going to email them.  Anyway I believe better streaming online audio will be available and I'll be surprised if streams in a lossless format aren't forthcoming soon. 

Anyway, I've really enjoyed the offramp and I'll likely be on the Daytona list come this fall.  Thanks again for your help.