Hello,
I'd like to take a minute to debunk that annoying statement on http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_asio (http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_asio)
Contrary to popular "audiophile" claims, there are NO benefits from using ASIO as far as music playback quality is concerned, while bugs in ASIO drivers may severely degrade the performance.
That is simply not true. Give me a minute to explain my position on this.
First of all, there is the subjective difference in audio quality. There is even a huge difference in sound quality on non-highend systems. Not just a subtle change but often sometimes really major and "what the hell just happened"-like.
Of course, this is a statement anyone could make and be ignored for not being able to back it up and then being accused of lying and imagining things. While I'm not talking about little grey people here, the reaction I get is often the same.
Now for the actual fun facts
ASIO on my ASUS Xonar D2X enables automatic sample-rate switching of the DSP. If I play a 44.1kHz song, the DSP runs at 44.1kHz, regardless of what I've set up in Windows or the drivers control panel. The same goes for 96kHz. There is an audible soft pop whenever that happens.
Of course this also means that there is no need to change the sample rate of Windows 7 (and Vista?). In XP everything would get resampled, iirc to 48kHz.
One could argue that there's also less "stuff" happening, since Windows doesn't get a chance to interfere with the sound, possibly improving sound quality and accuracy.
I've also done a test with RightMark Audio Analyzer, to check for differences. Test results (http://nifelan.de/RMAA/asiovsds.htm)
There are frequencies with >4dB difference in THD and Noise. Even more for dynamic range.
So I kindly ask to rephrase that sentence to a less offending stance on the topic.
I see the numbers, yes, but can you discern these numbers using your ears in a double-blind test for pure tones (let alone music)?
The key phrase here is as far as music playback quality is concerned.