My computer audio journey began with an old Windows based PC tower and discovering Foobar 2000, which was open source and free to download. I worked diligently to get Foobar setup and configured to my needs. And after awhile it performed and sounded great. After the power supply died in the PC, I purchased a Small Green Computer system along with Roon and Qubuz. My digital audio has never sounded or performed better.
A lot of music consumption nowadays ends of being played in 48kHz upsampled from 44.1kHz. Reason is that 48kHz is the most common operating system PCM clock. Such conversion involves maths that aim at estimating the wave form at different moments in time. Depending on the quality of the math, you can have more or less precision in the remapped audio waves thus a CD quality track might sound differently on different 48kHz supporting operating systems. A low cost Android phone might use simple math to save CPU cycles, for example.
My application is the Stratavarius scenario - I made a a half-braced and semi resonant cabinet with Rimu timber (18mm). I am adding a tweeter and it is sounding sweet. The Larravee and multi instrument guitar synth come out clearly despite amp itself is a cheapie 9 volt transistor. Cab has bracing around inside perimeters - front with void free pine ply baffle attached, and rear attached just half open.
HOLY COW!!! I downloaded "Foobar," a HUGE immediate improvement in music playback. My system suddenly sounds like it cost much, much more. Many thanks for the video and recommendations.
Another claim to google for in a program is "bit-perfect playback". Sometimes that's what they say to refer to the idea of playing the audio without passing it through any software processing. For example, on Linux, MPD has a section of their docs explaining what to turn off to get cleanest playback
If you don’t mind playing around with settings, the best digital library and transport combination is Roon+HQPlayer. Stick an M1/M2 Mac Mini with USB galvanic isolation to your setup and you are done.
Short solution: Use an external, stable clocked DAC to convert the digital stream to it's analog representation. I believe most computers can easily supply the stream of data that then just needs to be converted. If you are paranoid (like me ;-) do a 0-test where you sum the digital audio with an inverted copy-yeah, nothing to be heard if all is well-and use a bit scope to make sure your ears didn't miss anything.
Jriver works great with the WDM driver bypassing the windows internal mixer. I get bit perfect playback for movies, youtube and tidal and it's (almost) as good as Roon and Audirvana
I don't think this is the first thing you should worry about if you don't get good sound out of your speakers! The best way to avoid Windows oversampling is to set the Windows sound control to 44.1/16. That will cover most music that goes through the Windows audio stack. Isn't this right? But you can use ASIO or WASAPI drivers or use (AIMP) sound player for windows which is a very good player and has ASIO or WASAPI or at least one of those, Can't remember. AIMP also has skins that look like real vintage hifi equipment with ASIO or WASAPI, Windows' main volume does not work if I remember correctly, and it is a bit impractical
Foobar2000 is the best freeware bit perfect playback software avail. Simple but highly customizable user interface. With SACD and DSD plug-ins DSD recordings can be decoded and played as well. Futureproofing you to a degree. Let Foobar2000 handle all the playback. Window's audio circuitry is not designed for sound quality. It's dictated by price points and convenience. Foobar2000 will send your DAC what it needs to perform it's best. That simple. Do not rely on windows to do it. Ever. Tip...always high level input (from your main amp outputs) to a pair of stereo sub's.
Hey Paul, what happens when you listen to a 32 bit/384 kHz sampling rate and bit depth file file I read online some thing about a 32 point floating point when using 32-bit I’m just confused on that part could you help clarify?
For music content, 32 bits resolution is not really meaningful. 32 bits can theoretically provide up to 32x6=192dB dynamic range. A well designed analog audio circuit will be limited to around 120dB due to the naturally occurring thermal noise in electronics. Thus, anything more than 120/6=20 bits doesn't really make much sense and even 24 bits is overkill. The reason for 16, 24 and 32 bits are being used as standards is simply that computers operates in bytes of 8 bits, thus you use either 2, 3 or 4 bytes of sample resolution. In particular 32 bits makes sense because modern computers have 32 bit math instructions as standard. For sample rate, 384kHz is also more than plenty for human hearing abilities. I doubt anyone can hear the improvements from 192kHz to 384kHs, but it would be interesting to see someone doing a blind test on that subject.
@@ThinkingBetter thank you for the response. I use an app called KaiserTone it’s a hi-fi music player that converts PCM into DST and then I’m able to then select basically any sample rate or bit depth
An AES or SPDIF packet or frame is 32 bits. 24 bits are allocated for the audio samples and the last 8 bits are for flags and metadata. So sometimes, incorrectly IMO, 24bit audio is referred to as 32bit for this reason.
Audio professionals usually record at a bit depth of 24 bit fixed (!), so every sample is captured with a 24 bit resolution. 32 bit float (!) is what I use as interim format for mixing and mastering as this is my DAW's audio engine resolution. You do not want to dither the resultant stream, thus preserving maximum resolution.
People AKA Audiophiles still trying to make terrible music sound good using software, equalizers, Cables, power conditioning, room treatment , different types of audio equipment to do it. They spend $30.00 for a vinyl record or CD that sounds terrible. Streaming music that sounds terrible. They Spend $1,000’s in an attempt to make it sound good with a 100% failure rate. This is the mentality of an Audiophile.
Haha braine goes foobar everytime trying to remember it. I just remembered on android there is USB player pro I've used it on a DAC in the car (DynAudio) to play DSD files and also some speakers I have that has a built in DAC. Supports bit perfect etc
Here’s what really irritates me Apple has high resolution audio but Apple doesn’t offer a graphic equalizer a parametric equalizer or any other equalizer except for these basic ass presets that sound terrible and honestly don’t improve the sound, so why would they continue to stick with that?
Neutron Music Player and USB Audio Player PRO. The former has better advanced settings and the latter has a more polished interface. I think you had to enable "Follow Source Frequency" manually in Neutron.
Spotify should go out of business. Way too much repeating commercials constantly in the free version and shit quality if you’re paying, so basically useless.
@@shipsahoy1793eally? I find if your streamer is of good quality (not pc, via 2euro usb cable into dac) the difference between Spotify and eg Quobuz is rather small: yes Quobuz does highres, Spotify is limited to 320kB/s but this results in a bit of 3d and a somewhat rounder bass, a slight haze (wouldn’t call it harshness) but nothing major. At least on my system. (Yes I do prefer Quobuz w.r.t. >>listening
To my knowledge, you cannot chose the way spotify outputs data to a dac. But, I find on windows 10 and with wasapi, the previous issues with windows’ own music stream output have massively improved, so that it isn’t anymore night and day comparison. Best however, to upgrade to a dedicated streamer, that doesnt run several hundred processes, but only those related to its main job.
@@gioponti6359 yeah, I have decent streamer, decent dac, decent speakers, decent amplifier, decent everything. The Spotify audio is like a high quality mp3, you still get a better sonic experience with lossless, although without very expensive equipment it will sound almost as good, or pretty good on some lower fidelity equipment, depending on the components (but assuming a decent streamer&dac. It seems that for my streaming style, I have no use for Spotify. And like some other streamer enthusiasts, I am miffed that they haven’t stepped up. They are way overdue.
@@shipsahoy1793 ok, you talked me into making the comparison: Sol Gabetta & Helene Grimaud - Duo, Track10: from Spotify, cd scan and Quobuz (96/24). There are notable differences, there is more subtlety & life in it the higher the resolution - I hear that. Rather easily. And I am sure I would be able to sort the tracks correctly in a blind test, it is obvious. Yet, listening to only one version of the track, say in the morning without reference, it’ll be hard to identify the source and resolution, because its not like AM radio on the kitchen radio vs 512 dsd on a stellar system. In that sense I find Spotify & it’s resolution not that bad. Ymmv.
Is it ok to use a banana peel to remove scratches from my CD’s..?? Also, I listen to a lot of women Chinese singers on RU-vid. I don’t understand the language but they are cute. Is there a translation software program that will translate in real time. .?? Can I set up a Go Fund Me account to buy Paul’s equipment showroom..??
Don't use you windows pc for playback. If you use direct mode or ASIO Your windows sound will no longer work because other software doesn't support those audio modes, just the music player. Also whenever you pc has a high cpu load you music wil skip. It is a pain. Use a network streamer instead or be satisfied with de crappy windows sound. It will still be better than using to internal realtek sound chip.
I have a HAPPY MAC..🤗 I have a HAPPY iPhone..🤗 I have a HAPPY iPad..🤗 They all play 192/24 just fine. Maybe you bought a Fake Knockoff Mac from Pakistan instead of China..😳
How do you connect it to your stereo to play the lossless signal? AirPlay is just 16/48, so you need cables to get full resolution, and Bluetooth can not play high-res either.
@@bergennorway I don’t stream from my Mac. I have all my music downloaded on the Mac. Apple downloads in 192/24 on the SSD bit for bit. I also ExPort those over to an external drive for safe keeping. I don’t download those on my iPhone or iPad. The iPhone I stream in 256 for all my Apple Music. I don’t use/ listen to Apple Music too much. I have albums I bought from 2008 Those have all been converted already. I listen to YT music from around the World. All that is at 256 MP 4 audio codec. You can see the audio codec on the RU-vid video. People need to learn how to use YT. YT is better than the Apple library. You people have more problems than an old lady in a nursing home. Like an old lady, if you don’t have a problem you do your best to create one and cry about it.
Yes I have over 50 cables I plug into my Mac. Each one cost $10,000 plus tax..😀 I have 14/ $8,000.00 power cords for juice..😀😀😀😀 I even have one for my $25.00 Walmart coffee maker. It makes coffee Audiophile grade.😀😀😀😀
