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Topic: Question about foobar2000 w/WASAPI (Read 4007 times) previous topic - next topic
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Question about foobar2000 w/WASAPI

I'm new to foobar. I'm running Windows Vista  with a ASUS Xonar DX sound card. I have an Emotiva XDA-1 external dac, a headphone amp and headphones.
I have an S/PDIF optical connection from the sound card to the dac. Foobar is configured to output via WASAPI and S/PDIF pass-through. I have confirmed that the output is in exclusive mode.

I want to get a bit exact data stream from my music files on the PC to the dac, and control volume from the dac. This setup seems to be doing that. However, the volume slider on the foobar panel still works. If I can change the volume in foobar, I am necessarily changing the data stream to the dac. How then, can it be said that the data stream is bit exact?
Am I missing something here?

I have the volume slider set to max volume - the setting which shows a 0.0db adjustment. I'm guessing that this is the setting that does not alter the data.

By way of comparison, I also have installed a trial version of JRiver's Media Center and have it configured for exclusive mode and S/PDIF pass-through. When I do this the volume control in Media Center is set to "System"  and the slider adjustment is disabled.

Does foobar need a similar control to insure bit exact operation?

Bill

Question about foobar2000 w/WASAPI

Reply #1 –
Quote from: billS on
I have the volume slider set to max volume - the setting which shows a 0.0db adjustment. I'm guessing that this is the setting that does not alter the data.

Correct.

Quote from: billS on
Does foobar need a similar control to insure bit exact operation?

foobar does internal volume operations with 32bit floating point precision. One example of this is the volume slider, other examples would be replayGain adjustments or replayGain/equalizer preamp adjustments.

In each case you can just select "none" or zero if you are strangely obsessed with "bit perfectness". It is not necessary to disable a GUI element to conform to such paranoia. With the DUI you can even hide all volume controls out of reach so you never have to worry about "bumping" it.
elevatorladylevitateme

Question about foobar2000 w/WASAPI

Reply #2 –
Until three days ago, I didn't know that foobar existed and I had never heard of "bit-perfectness". Someone suggested that I install foobar and configure it for bit-prefect output to the dac. I thought I would try it.

I have some 96KHz/24 bit and 192KHz/24 bit HD tracks that I would like to play back as close to the original as possible. I do not think that qualifies as obsessive or paranoid.

Actually, it sounds pretty good.

Cheers,
Bill
 

Question about foobar2000 w/WASAPI

Reply #3 –
Well, that is all well and good.

There are many things that can be transparently manipulated with digital audio, volume changes being one of those things. I would suggest that you don't feel apprehensive about using a digital volume slider over an analog one. Both will provide transparent results. Given such transparency, "bit-perfectness" is a bit silly.
elevatorladylevitateme