do linux or mac play music better than windows?

[Mantra]

Hi
Maybe it's a silly question , but sometime i use a mac with audirvana and seems for my ears it does play songs better than windows
I was reading a topic about linux vs windows what hi fi forum and seems there are several users that do report that linux or macos can play music better than windows
I used wasapi exclusive foobar2000 or musicbee under windows and on my external dac even asio , and the only program i know under macos is audirvana

I guess bit perfect it's bit perfect but maybe these operation system or player softwares could Eq under the hood and let play more tasty
are there some tests about it?
and what do you think ? Have you some feedbacks?
thanks

 

[somebodyelse]

They're all capable of bit perfect playback, or being set up to mess it up.

 

[Blumlein 88]

The safest is Windows via ASIO.

 

[antcollinet]

They're all capable of bit perfect playback, or being set up to mess it up.

They are.

But ultimately if up/down conversions, or sample rate conversions, or volume control (and so on) are all implemented correctly, they're inaudibly imperfect. So even when not bit perfect, any one should be audibly identical to the other.

Subject of course - as you say - to not being messed up.

 

[Mantra]

They are.

But ultimately if up/down conversions, or sample rate conversions, or volume control (and so on) are all implemented correctly, they're inaudibly imperfect. So even when not bit perfect, any one should be audibly identical to the other.

Subject of course - as you say - to not being messed up.

They're all capable of bit perfect playback, or being set up to mess it up.

Hi
may i know what does it mean for mess it up?
windows 10 wasapi exclusive musicbee or foobar2k , what should i do more? windows speakers settings "Disable all enhancements" -> are these settings (screenshots) correct?
or is enough wasapi exclusive ?
is there a tutorial?
thanks

The safest is Windows via ASIO.

hi
but I use my laptop with the build in card and there is no asio driver for it
thanks

 

[Shadrach]

I've used Linux for 20 years or more. Every now and then I set up a windows machine for audio playback for one of my less computer savvy friends.
Both are equally capable of quality playback.
Both have a decent selection of music players.
Both are capable of bypassing the audio management stack which is often where problems lie.
The advantage of Linux is there are distributions that will run well on low powered machines and not take up much room on a drive. I found it easier to get linux to concentrate on the task at hand, audio playback, rather than wanting to run off on the internet to play with it's mates and tell the world about your business.
Use what you are most comfortable with. Foobar for windows is still an excellent music player option, especially given it's free.

 

[Mantra]

I've used Linux for 20 years or more. Every now and then I set up a windows machine for audio playback for one of my less computer savvy friends.

Hi
but is there a tutorial with screenshot to setup correctly windows ?
thanks

 

[Shadrach]

I'm sure there are a few if you search the internet for windows bit perfect playback for whatever windows OS you have.
I think Asio4All is still available.

 

[StigErik]

Asio4all is not going to solve anything, as its just a wrapper around the existing WDM drivers.

 

[Shadrach]

Asio4all is not going to solve anything, as its just a wrapper around the existing WDM drivers.

It works, wrapper or not if a stack bypass is needed.

 

[Berwhale]

may i know what does it mean for mess it up?

but is there a tutorial with screenshot to setup correctly windows ?

There's a thread about that...

Ending the Windows Audio Quality Debate

A debate has been long raging in the audio community that Windows isn't fit for use in a high resolution audio system. Sceptics counterargued that bits are bits and Windows audio degradations are a figment of an over-active audiophile imagination. I decided to investigate this as I kept...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[StigErik]

It works, wrapper or not if a stack bypass is needed.

A native ASIO driver talks directly to the audio hardware. Asio4all doesn't - it has to talk to the WDM drivers.

 

[ZolaIII]

The safest is Windows via ASIO.

And most backward compatible regarding DAW's and VTS. OSX comes second and lot of work is being done on Linux to get there regarding VTS but still wouldn't really rely on it yet. In short JRiver WDM on Windows.

 

[somebodyelse]

may i know what does it mean for mess it up?

Some examples:
* inappropriate resampling method - either setting a low quality one when plenty of processing power is available, or a high quality one that the hardware can't keep up with (only likely on very slow systems by current standards)
* bad gain staging, causing clipping somewhere in the signal path
* application doing something unexpected
* resampling or changing volume when bit-perfect playback is required (MQA, DoP, surround formats over spdif/toslink etc.)

 

[Mantra]

There's a thread about that...

Ending the Windows Audio Quality Debate

A debate has been long raging in the audio community that Windows isn't fit for use in a high resolution audio system. Sceptics counterargued that bits are bits and Windows audio degradations are a figment of an over-active audiophile imagination. I decided to investigate this as I kept...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Hi
thanks for the link ,but i guess a webpage with somescreenshots would be better , i have found a german webpage but i don't understand german

And most backward compatible regarding DAW's and VTS. OSX comes second and lot of work is being done on Linux to get there regarding VTS but still wouldn't really rely on it yet. In short JRiver WDM on Windows.

Hi
May I know if you use JRiver media player as music player and JRiver WDM is included in the installation?
and can i know what vst do you use? Foobar2k ,Musicbee and Aimp can use them
thanks

 

[SSS]

Hi
thanks for the link ,but i guess a webpage with somescreenshots would be better , i have found a german webpage but i don't understand german

Hi
May I know if you use JRiver media player as music player and JRiver WDM is included in the installation?
and can i know what vst do you use? Foobar2k ,Musicbee and Aimp can use them
thanks

Hi,
I use Windows 10 Pro on my old Laptop with Audirvana player software. Connected an external DAC via USB. Audirvana support told that WASAPI is fully OK, no need for ASIO driver. There may be external DACs which provide their own ASIO driver, then this may be better. Remember that ASIO was made for bidirectional communication both recording and playback simultaneous. For music playin only this is not required. Anyway I would use an external hi quality DAC not the internal one.

 

[wwenze]

Everything is nice until DPC latency hits.

USB doesn't support DMA due to security reasons something something

 

[ZolaIII]

@Mantra you just enable WDM JRiver driver in JRiver and set it up to default Windows sound output so everything is directed trough JRiver DSP chain trough WDM driver. Which VTS you could use is more up to you and actual players/DAW capabilities. From PEQ to all pass to tube stage, other effects individual or all in one. There are VTS plugins with more effects in one and more all together than in good advanced DAW like Ozone Izotpe for example. Used lot of different one's in last 20 years and with both players and DAW's.

 

[Vincent Kars]

Cheked the calendar, yes it is 2024 indeed. Debates about difference in sound quality between OS sounds so very much 2010.
All OS do have their options to bypass the OS audio. Be is WASAPI/Exclusive, hogmode, HWx, etc.
As they all can be configured to deliver bit perfect output, they all sound the same

 

[Audiofire]

or is enough wasapi exclusive ?

Window's Sample Rate

What should I set sample rate within windows OS? I always set it to 44100 because that's the most common sample rate. I noticed j test is much different between 44100 and 48000.

audiosciencereview.com