[chadh]

In a recent thread, someone suggested that I would be better off using something other than ASIO4all as an ASIO driver.  Now I look into it, it seems there are many ASIO drivers, and I have no idea whether there are any differences, or which will work best with my Foobar.

Any suggestions?

Oh - freeware is greatly preferred.

As an aside, I always giggle a little when thinking about ASIO drivers, mostly because ASIO meant something completely different to me whilst growing up in Australia: http://www.asio.gov.au/. 

Chad

[chadh]

Any suggestions?

Chad

[viggen]

So, ASIO = NSA?

I've only have experience with two types of ASIO drivers, ASIO4ALL and USB-ASIO. 

The latter is not freeware.  I paid 44 euros for the license.  You can trial USB-ASIO before you pay though.  The trial version will beep every 30 seconds.

Here's a link: http://www.usb-audio.com/download.html

I also much prefer freeware, but, for some reasons, I couldn't get ASIO4ALL to work on my PC after I reinstalled Foobar a few months ago. 

Long story short, USB-ASIO sounds a bit cleaner in mids and highs and bass is stronger.  However, at first, I preferred ASIO4ALL.  It might be that my ears were more acclimated to the ASIO4ALL's sound.  But, after a few days, I didn't miss ASIO4ALL anymore. 

Also, with ASIO4ALL, I am only bypassing kmixer wen using Foobar.  Some sites say ASIO4ALL doesn't bypass kmixer at all but has the same effect or something.  With USB-ASIO, audio bypasses kmixer with every application. 

Hope this helps.

[chadh]

Many thanks.

I found USB-ASIO and didn't know if it was "the one".

Chad

[WGH]

I used USB-ASIO With Windows XP for over 2 years and found it an improvement over ASIO4ALL.

Six months ago I got a Toshiba laptop running the 64 bit Windows Vista. I set it up to use Foobar and WASAPI and the sound was clearer with tighter bass so now I only use the laptop to stream music, the music files are still on the tower case running XP.

Wayne

[chadh]

I used USB-ASIO With Windows XP for over 2 years and found it an improvement over ASIO4ALL.

Six months ago I got a Toshiba laptop running the 64 bit Windows Vista. I set it up to use Foobar and WASAPI and the sound was clearer with tighter bass so now I only use the laptop to stream music, the music files are still on the tower case running XP.

Wayne

So, you don't need an ASIO driver if you use Foobar on a Vista machine?

Chad

[srb]

So, you don't need an ASIO driver if you use Foobar on a Vista machine?

You can use an ASIO driver on a Vista/7 machine, but you can't use the WASAPI driver on an XP machine.
 
The WASAPI driver is generally preferred over ASIO for Vista/7.
 
Steve

[chadh]

You can use an ASIO driver on a Vista/7 machine, but you can't use the WASAPI driver on an XP machine.
 
The WASAPI driver is generally preferred over ASIO for Vista/7.
 
Steve

Got it!  Thanks.

Chad

[jrebman]

Hi Chad,

Thanks for asking this as I've been curious about alternatives to asio4all.

How did things turn out with the Tranquility?

Thanks,

Jim

[chadh]

How did things turn out with the Tranquility?

Jim

Things are wonderful right now.  Thanks!  How about your new Fi monoblocks?  I hope they're everything you were hoping for.

Chad

[jrebman]

Chad,

Are you using the usb-asio driver w/Tranquility?

The Fis are every bit as amazing as people say, and more given the amorphous core Tamura OPTS.

I had a friend over the other day and played some live acoustic jazz for him and he was really impressed -- said it sounded just like you were there in person.

Everything else from rock to large orchestral is sounding so good that aside from a few more tweaks to the source computer, there really isn't anything I have any need to change.  It's been a long journey, but at least as far as this system is concerned, it's sounding like other systems I've heard at 5 to 10 times it's cost.  Lovin' it!

-- Jim

[jrebman]

Hah! Never mind...

I was finally able to "see" an error message from when I tried to use the foobar direct kernel streaming component that said something to the effect of "unable to open device".  I then reasoned that perhaps the asio4all driver had already grabbed the audio hardware, so I removed asio4all, rebooted, and selected the ks usb dac output device and presto!  A huge leap in audio quality that I didn't even realize the system was capable of.

I also tried the usb-asio driver and while it too is an improvement over asio4all, the KS output is just that much better.

Of course, there are so many variables with these things I can't say this will be the case for anybody else, but I do know of one other person who did a single-blind test using KS, WASAPI, and something else, and everybody preferred the KS setting.

This is so good now that I'm just going to have to go back and listen to all my favorite tracks and albums just to see what I've been missing.

-- Jim

[viggen]

Sorry to jack this thread.  But, recently been using my laptop in the system which allows me to go back and forth between ASIO4ALL and USB-ASIO.  And, although USB-ASIO sounds better technically, ASIO4ALL is more listenable especially after the 10 minute mark.  So, I am going back to ASIO4ALL.  My laptop has XP at the moment.

I wonder if it is worthwhile to upgrade to Window 7 and use Wasapi?  Don't know if anyone has done the comparison.

Thanks,