Mr_bill
Here's my understanding of the ASIO driver.
The big deal with Windows production of Audiophile sound quality is getting around the Windows Sound Mixer inherent to the operating system. The ASIO driver circumvents the mixer by sidestepping it.
I'm using a USB sound card of sorts, A Bel Canto DAC 3. it connects via USB in my rig for listening sessions… and the integrated sound chip set for normal use of the PC as a prerequisite..
Drivers are used to allow software to talk to hardware.
Windows will put/place A driver for it by default when it sees the DAC.
Try the Windows default driver for yourself. or others, if you like, and as well, the USB FOR ALL German offering... the latter is a trial which will beep at 30 second intervals... until you buy it and enter the unlock code. There are some freee one’s out there too, though so many notes of those using both, pointed to the ASIO for all as the better one, so I just bought it and didn’t spend a lot of time trying out this one and that one and doing all the reconfiguring I presumed would be needed..
The main thing about the ASIO driver is the lessening or prevention of latency. Dropouts. Skipping. The JR software is doing the decoding and providing the improvement to the sound… the ASIO driver is just the conduit or carrier of that to the DAC/soundcard.
You can download it here:
http://www.asio4all.com/
..and try it for free.
J RIVER
J River has some Playback options. Included in there is the ability to use differing output devices, Windows, your sound card, an ASIO (Auto sound input output) driver. A couple minor means to configure it are directly under the playback device selection, giving you some more flexibility with the ASIO Driver. Other mo' betta means of configuring it can be done with other sound recording softtware who also use ASIO's. Those configurations are ‘global’ and not local settings so whatever changes are made in there, will affect it when using it with say, J River. It’s a little obtuse IMO, but if you wish to tinker around….??
ONce the ASIO (trial or not) has been downloaded, and JR restarted, it will see the new ASIO driver. Using the above path in JR, select it as the default output device.
One other step maybe necessary, and that involves going to the Windows Control panel, > sounds & audio devices > Audio tab > select the (once intergrated and energized) USBAUDIO DEVICE. vIOLIN! aLL IS WELL….OR should be at that time. A restart of the pc usually isn’t needed. Sometimes a restart of JR is though.
Checking the box labeled ‘use only default devices’ will make this a more permanent thing, and to use some other output sorce for other instances, the box will need to be unchecked.
play whatever... the ONLY issue I've yet to resolve is playing back some older MP3 files. The "ASIO for all" driver is ONLY 16/44.1K Hz. And I may have done them at a higher sampling rate.
Either the ASIO driver, and definitely via USB to the DAC3, won't deal with higher word lengths, or sampling rates.
Given the USBB through put of the DAC 3 is exactly the same, well, fine. Were I to desire to begin using 24/96 or 24/192, I believe I’d need a sound card or DAC that supports it… as I’m not sure if it’s the ASIO limitations in truth, or merely the limitations of my present PCs audio device.
The bottom line is simple… this path allows me to emulate almost completely the audio quality I get using my SCD xa777 + BC DAC3… yet I can now stop running back and forth from the listening room to the electronics room to flip discs. I’m a great ‘taker outer’ but I’m not a great “putter backer”… and this way also allows all the ancillary bennys. Tons of whatever music, a few keystrokes away.
Lastly, as you’ll see at the above website, this driver works with loads of other sound cards… PCI or USB, if you wish to use another interface than the USB with your DAC.
Itunes however still sounds lackluster as I’ve not been able to find out how to get iTunes to see that driver. Though I think it’s not too hard probably. So I still use iTunes to rip and sort, then import to JR and play. JR also has an iTunes GUI/Skin so it can look nearly identical to iTunes if you wish.
Hope that helps.
