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ASIO on PC & Mac with iTunes & Apple Lossless

Ignorance is bliss and I was too stupid to know it. I did an A/B test with my CD drive optically connected to my DAC1 and computer/waveterminal connected to the coax port. All my music is in iTunes ripped with Apple Lossless Codec.

The DAC1 has a nice little switch that allows me to switch immediately from one source to another. So I started the same song in the CD and on iTunes and started A/B swapping.

The PC with k-mixer was shockingly bad. With the CD, the stage was big and deep. Switch to the PC and the stage collapsed and it sounded like half of the richness disappeared. It was clear, unambiguous and really bad.

I monkeyed around and tried some generic ASIO drivers but it seems that I couldn't really get any better quality out of my PC. I'm not sure that iTunes ever picked up the ASIO drivers at all, even though I had installed the Waveterminal drivers.

I got sick of PC fun and dragged an old iMac into the picture. The drivers don't appear to be ASIO for OS X - and are in beta since 2003. The A/B test with the Mac was better than the one with the PC, but it is still anemic, especially at the low frequency range.

So - here's the questions:

1) Can anyone tell me of a sound card or other solution that can bypass the k-mixer in Windows and use ASIO?

2) Once I have that - is there a way to force iTunes to use that driver? Right now, most ASIO apps have a special dialog box that you configure to use the drivers. iTunes has no such dialog box.

If you can suggest an all-Macintosh solution - that's okay too.

Thanks,

Daryll.

System
Benchmark Media DAC1
U24 Waveterminal
Threshold T-200 Amp
B&W 803s
Either PC or Mac
dfogal

Showing 3 responses by iamoneagain

iamoneagain
3 posts
 
Hopefully Foobar 2000 0.9 will be finalized so it can get ASIO support. Right now the beta version will play Apple lossless, so once it's released, an update to the ASIO will be added.

http://www.foobar2000.org/ click on the beta link

There is also this program that lets itunes control foobar so you would get bit-perfect sound but with the itunes interface. The two problems could be: does it work with foobar 2000 0.9 and does it work with itunes 5.0.

http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=27275

I haven't found an Apple Lossless codec that works with the current release of foobar.

Hopefully soon this will all be worked out. I just tried a cd using ASIO output and it was a little more detailed and clearer. I don't think itunes output is that bad, so I'll live with it until foobar is ready.
iamoneagain
3 posts
 
Oh, the program that lets itune passthrough foobar is: http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=27275

Although the current version of foobar has ASIO support, it does not support apple lossless. The beta version supports apple lossless but the ASIO driver doesn't work. Once the beta version is finalized, all previous plugins should be updated to work with it, including ASIO support.
iamoneagain
3 posts
 
I'll have to give the Airport Express a try. If it sounds better, I can sell my emu-1212 to pay for it and then some. I also like the fact that it turns off the volume control so you are getting the right lineout sound level.
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