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UAC2 in Windows 10/11 - do we really need "dedicated" DAC driver?

SkyTrax79

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ASIO started in the 90s, long time before MS introduced wasapi in Win Vista. Until wasapi there was no low-latency direct-access driver model in windows.

IMO today wasapi exclusive is a better option. It allows the same direct access to the soundcard DMA buffer (provided the driver does so, but that's up to the vendor, the wasapi excl. layer allows it). It allows one process to communicate with multiple audio devices, unlike ASIO whose original client library uses static variables for the connection and multiple accesses need to be hacked (e.g. https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/diana-a-software-distortion-analyzer.315785/post-7121977 ). But IMO most importantly it does not bind the capture and playback into one bufferSwitch callback like ASIO which disallows reliable use of different capture and playback devices, running with independent clocks (e.g. https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...est-spec-adc-chip-currently.13469/post-871503 )
There was Kernel Streaming before WASAPI that was introduced with Windows 98 and it still used today, it bypass the Windows mixer and doesn't resample and can achieve under 10ms latency. ASIO4ALL is only a wrapper for Kernel Streaming. There is also WaveRT that was introduced with Windows Vista for low latency playback and recording.
 

SkyTrax79

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Thanks for the link. I remember using Kernel Streaming when Winamp was popular and more recently in foobar200. I never use ASIO even if the option is available, it's not user friendly. I imagine it's better if you take the time to configure it properly for a PC that will be used exclusively for one application like a DAW in a recording studio, that's why it was invented by Steinberg that makes Cubase. It's a proprietary thing that was not intended to be used in consumer products and it's tricky to make it works great.
 

SSS

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As far as Win 10 and USB connection to a DAC all works fine at my system with the Windows WASAPI driver and/or the ASIO driver asio4all. On other connections like fibre optic or specific interfaces I don't have any experience since I don't want to use these interfaces.
 
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