question about windows audio players output engines , are they all accurate?

[Mantra]

Hi
I use mostly foobar2000 and sometime musicbee ,i have used aimp 4 and 5
Goldwave have the possibility to loopback record like audacity
I'm not an expert , but seems the foobar2000 ,musicbee or other windows audio player output engine is different , i'm not sure about it ,but seem some programs have a lightly more high frequencies ,in short their output is not the same
about audirvana under mac , I like a lot "even lots of crashes and bugs" but I could not record the output under mac
I have disabled all dsp and wasapi exlusive or shared

now , do these windows programs play aac or mp3 or other files with the same output without changing frequency ?
are they all accurate?
has someone record loopback to find out if they are all accurate ?

thanks
hope english is clear enough , i have used google translator

 

[twsecrest]

Have you installed the WASAPI component for Foobar2000?

 

[Dunring]

I use APO equalizer with the Peace front end. When installing it, click each device and uncheck the existing APO if there is a box checked and replace it with the equalizer one. Sounds great and you get system wide control over equalizer settings. In foobar I do wasapi shared like was already mentioned, and run in 9600khz since I don't have music files higher than that.

 

[Larry_H]

I just got a new PC, and it had Waves Maxx Audio installed. That was really messing with the audio. Turned off all "enhancements" and it still wasn't right. It's a resource pig too. Can't uninstall it. Still shows up. Practically malware. Disabled it from the startup menu seems to work. Using the driver from my DAC interface and it's fine for now.

 

[DVDdoug]

They should be the same.

The audio data is sent to the Windows drivers and there may be some re-sampling (normally inaudible) or some Windows effects/enhancements may be applied but they should all be the same.

After recording with Audacity or GoldWave you can do a "null test" by inverting one copy and then mixing. Mixing is done by summation so after inverting you are subtracting ("adding a negative") and you'll get silence. You'll have to zoom-in and time-align to the exact sample and you may have to normalize or otherwise match the volumes.

Save the GoldWave or Audacity files as WAV, even if the originals are a lossy format.

 

[czt]

WASAPI component is deprecated in current foobar2000 as it is the default (with shared mode, exclusive selectable).

 

[Mantra]

Have you installed the WASAPI component for Foobar2000?

Hi Twsecrest
yes , i have installed and in foobar2000 v2 it's included or pre-installed
thanks

I just got a new PC, and it had Waves Maxx Audio installed. That was really messing with the audio. Turned off all "enhancements" and it still wasn't right. It's a resource pig too. Can't uninstall it. Still shows up. Practically malware. Disabled it from the startup menu seems to work. Using the driver from my DAC interface and it's fine for now.

Hi
i don't have Waves Maxx Audio ,but good information ,have tried revo uninstaller or other tools
thanks

WASAPI component is deprecated in current foobar2000 as it is the default (with shared mode, exclusive selectable).

Hi Ctz
I guess it's deprecated in foobar2000 v2 ,isn't it?
but does it sound worse in v2 the build in or the component?
because i can't hear any difference ,under v2 i use the foobar2000 build wasapi
thanks

 

[Mantra]

They should be the same.

The audio data is sent to the Windows drivers and there may be some re-sampling (normally inaudible) or some Windows effects/enhancements may be applied but they should all be the same.

After recording with Audacity or GoldWave you can do a "null test" by inverting one copy and then mixing. Mixing is done by summation so after inverting you are subtracting ("adding a negative") and you'll get silence. You'll have to zoom-in and time-align to the exact sample and you may have to normalize or otherwise match the volumes.

Save the GoldWave or Audacity files as WAV, even if the originals are a lossy format.

Hi DVDdoug
I have done ,I mean I have recored but i was not able to do this test
but I guess they (windows audio players) do use different decoder engines
have you tried to use several audio players to decode a mp3 or an aac and compare?
thanks

 

[Mantra]

I use APO equalizer with the Peace front end. When installing it, click each device and uncheck the existing APO if there is a box checked and replace it with the equalizer one. Sounds great and you get system wide control over equalizer settings. In foobar I do wasapi shared like was already mentioned, and run in 9600khz since I don't have music files higher than that.

Hi Dunring
is APO equalizer so used in this forum or other users ?
Is easy to uninstall ?
I have downlaoded EqualizerAPO64-1.3.exe Peace64.exe and PeaceSetup.exe ,seeing i use w10 64bit ,are the right files?

click each device and uncheck the existing APO if there is a box checked and replace it with the equalizer one.

I have only 1 device connected to listen music and i have all 44.100 (i don't know if i should need 9600) and I just like to use musicbee or foobar2000 Eq to equalize some albums increasing bass and lower high frequencies
do you use because you have more than 1 device to amp to listen music ?
or do you use even with 1 device ?
can you eq only some albums (folders with audio ) with apo and peace?
thanks Dunring

 

[Dunring]

I have a business for audio equipment so I change gear on a daily or hourly basis. It's more flexible being able to swap things out. Also for gaming and music it needs different profiles, and the presets make it easy. The Autoeq feature in Peace is amazing also, no manually entering in EQ settings for the most part. You could just run at 48khz and be fine for gaming and movies as well. Both have 64 bit versions and a breeze to uninstall cleanly.

 

[czt]

I guess it's deprecated in foobar2000 v2 ,isn't it?
but does it sound worse in v2 the build in or the component?
because i can't hear any difference ,under v2 i use the foobar2000 build wasapi
thanks

I always use(d) the wasapi exclusive with fb2k to bypass Windows audio processing layers, but I never done any comparison.