Hi,
The player, is important, too :
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...l-comparison-software.6633/page-2#post-152500
The player, is important, too :
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...l-comparison-software.6633/page-2#post-152500
There are several places in Windows 10 to find audio settings. If you right click on the volume control and choose "open sound settings" you will see a drop down where you can choose your device. If your device uses USB only, it will probably only have your existing device. If your motherboard has a Realtek audio chip, as most do, you may also have "Realtek Digital Output (optical)" and perhaps a "Realtek Digital Output" for coaxial or hdmi output. These do not represent your DAC but you may select them if you wish to use optical/coaxial/hdmi outputs on your motherboard to your dac.How do you see what Driver your DAC uses by default in Win 10? I looked in Device Manager, and i dont see any mention of ASIO or WASAPI.
You may find that if you have Youtube open and you try to start a file in your music player, it may not start, or alternately you may find that if you are playing a music file with WASAPI exclusive mode, you will get errors when you open a youtube video. That is normal to some extent, but manageable.
That is why I use WASAPI in exclusive mode, I don't like email notifications or other system sounds in full blast over the stereoSo, if you are paranoid about avoiding the risk of anything polluting your precious audio, WASAPI is the choice for you
Something is exclusive does not mean something is bit-perfect. If one only uses Windows' built-in driver (class compliant), then things are more or less expected (i.e. bit-perfect).It's probably worth mentioning a potential weakness when using ASIO in a domestic environment (i.e. outside the studio where the computer is totally dedicated to, and set up as, an audio workstation). ASIO does not offer the exclusive mode available to WASAPI. Let's dig a little deeper. If you look at the Sound section within Control Panel, select the playback device in question and look at its Properties, Advanced, you'll see two check-box options relating to exclusive access. Let's assume they are selected. Also, note the sample rate set in the upper area of the same box.
View attachment 57408
When some audio playback software is using this device via the WASAPI, that device is effectively locked out and unavailable for any other purpose until released by the software using it.
ASIO, being designed for maximum flexibility and multi-track audio (and possibly, more than one audio application contributing to the mayhem), does not offer that facility. You can prove this by playing some audio from any application set to use ASIO. If the default format is set to the same sampling rate as the audio being played by your software, pressing the Test button will cause the test sound to be mixed with the audio you are playing i.e. you will hear both. Ergo, not exclusive! If you try the same experiment with the application set to use WASAPI, pressing the Test button will illicit a distinct message to the effect that the audio hardware is away on business.
So, if you are paranoid about avoiding the risk of anything polluting your precious audio, WASAPI is the choice for you
Good points.WASAPI exclusive mode does not guarantee bit-perfectness.
No it doesn'tCreative driver seems unusual
Not only Creative. Read the RME link I posted above.What you describe about the behaviour of the Creative driver seems unusual, but that company does seem rather determined to do things their way ("it's what our users want").
Which rather suggests that soundcard drivers are operating outside the "rules". The WASAPI documentation appears reasonably unambiguous (as much as any Windows documentation can be) that if an endpoint has its 'exclusive' boxes checked, an application (typically, a media player) can lock that endpoint for its exclusive use, at its pleasure.No it doesn't. Discrete soundcards most of the time don't cope well with WASAPI.
Given that [few would dispute] the optimum way of playing digital audio these days is a DAC fed via asynchronous USB, the resampling could be considered an inconvenience even if it is not a sonic disaster. Why convert when to do so is unnecessary?...unless you can really hear the resampling at work
Well, because it seems a lot of people (at least when reading amirm's reviews) have numerous problems with ASIO drivers.Given that [few would dispute] the optimum way of playing digital audio these days is a DAC fed via asynchronous USB, the resampling could be considered an inconvenience even if it is not a sonic disaster. Why convert when to do so is unnecessary?
When some features you need require installation of a third party driver, so it is not limited to SRC quality or bit-perfectness.On GNU/Linux or *BSD, people use the generic USB audio driver without any problem, any reason people don't on Windows? Because that tinkering looks a bit useless from afar; unless you can really hear the resampling at work, which seems a bit dubious.
If there is no loss of useful features, I would recommend using a generic driver as well.Some devices (especially pro audio interfaces) have additional onboard DSP and FPGA and they also require drivers to work, the drivers can override WASAPI behaviour as well.