Best way to listen to music on Windows 10

[jevenator]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to the audiophile game and have a Topping E30/Schiit Heresy w/ HD58x's.

I've tried searching already and got very confused and lost by the vast amount of information/programs to listen to music. Under my advanced properties for my DAC I have 24/32 bit options and now I have 16bit since I installed some driver or program not sure when it popped up. I tried the VB - virtual audio cable, ASIO&WASAPI (still couldn't figure that out and how it works), Equalizer APO, peace, another program for EQ APO, loaded up what I guess is supposed to be the best EQ for each headphone but then there are 3 different EQ's there according to this reddit post which ultimately made everything sound so funky that I tried to uninstall everything.

I'm primarily streaming from Spotify Premium. It sounds good but I always want the best possible output if it's available to me and i'm not limited by integrated windows software or something like that.

Another question is if I download something from www.2l.no what would be the best player to use with the tracks there?
I read that you can get the DAC to switch automatically with ASIO&WASAPI but I could not figure out how to do that. I'm mainly asking about the screen on the E30 there it shows the format that is set in the windows properties. Is there a way to make it automatically change according to the file that I am listening too or do I just set it and forget it?

 

[majingotan]

IIRC, you cannot use Equalizer APO, Peace EQ under ASIO/WASAPI Exclusive so forget about those audio routing interfaces if EQ is a must for you. Also, Spotify Premium does not support WASAPI but supports directsound even when the playback device is NOT the default sound device (e.g. you can set on-board audio as your default device and output spotify to E30 exclusively since system sounds will be played on the default device). For setting the shared output, you can choose any of the sample rate setting you prefer, but many choose 24/48. I prefer 16/44.1 but whatever 16/24/32 bit setting you choose don't give audible degradation to the sound. VB audio is used for audio interfaces where you would use ASIO for DAW applications

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

Another question is if I download something from www.2l.no what would be the best player to use with the tracks there?

By not bothering with it. High Resolution audio formats are for editing purposes, not for listening.
If you listen to spotify, set windows to standard settings 48KHz/24Bit, me thinks and forget about the rest.

If you want your DAC to be used exclusively for music listening, get foobar 2000 (https://www.foobar2000.org/ ) with the WASAPI plugin (https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_wasapi ), select your DAC with WASAPI-push under File->preferences->playback->output and you will get the automatic sample rate switching, avoiding any re-sampling windows might do.

Don't even start with any of the freakish DSD nonsense. A whole lot of effort for no audible gain.

 

[Vincent Kars]

Maybe this part of my website is of use as it covers the basics of Win audio settings: https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Windows/Win7/Win7Audio.htm

 

[jevenator]

Thanks everyone for your help. I've relaxed about it and enjoying the music that I have.