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Re: Kmixer, iTunes, Foobar, ASIO, and Scott Nixon USB DAC

72.199.1.251

Posted by edward on July 16, 2006 at 13:54:07

In Reply to: Kmixer, iTunes, Foobar, ASIO, and Scott Nixon USB DAC posted by mourip on July 16, 2006 at 12:45:57:

I've been a little confused about it myself, Paul, but allow me to share what I think is going on, and then others can either agree or correct me.

The way I figured it, iTunes DOES NOT use the KMixer no matter what. As long as your sound card comes with an ASIO driver (such as my M-Audio Transit) then you can use DirectSound and still bypass the KMixer. But here's the key. All volume settings must be set to max (including the one in iTunes).

In order to prove this, you have to verify bit-perfect playback. The best way I know how to prove this, is by playing an encoded file such as HDCD or DTS. These formats play 16/44.1 but the filter code (for HDCD or DTS) is encoded in the least significant bit. If any DSP or KMixer touches it, than you will hear nothing but static. I was able to play a DTS WAV file from iTunes (using DirectSound) connected to a Denon DTS capable reciever. But as soon as I dropped the volume below 100% in iTunes, I heard static. That's when the KMixer kicked in.

However, as you also mentioned, another point of mystery to me is that playing a file through foobar with ASIO does seem to sound better (and still keeps the DTS file intact).

-EDWARD

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