What a diff this has made to my life!
Just installed the ASIO4ALL drivers and did the config. and I am now (finally) happy to listen to all the mp3's again and again at volume...WOW!
If you are using SPDIF without this...get it now!
http://www.asio4all.com/Here is some more info. from "
http://www.stereo-link.com/Static/1200FAQ.html".
"ASIO are a type of low-latency audio drivers for Windows. They were originally developed by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH to facilitate recording and editing on the PC. High-end enthusiasts have started using ASIO drivers because they bypass the Windows mixer stack and ensure exact bit transfer to the DAC. A free version ASIO4ALL has been developed by Michael Tippach, and it supports "generic" USB audio devices like the stereo-link DACs.
The information needed to get started is a bit difficult to find in one place. We hope the following brief introduction will help.
You will need both the ASIO4ALL driver AND a compatible plug-in for your player (usually). Once the plug-in is installed, you will need to use the properties option of your player to select the ASIO output instead of the DirectSound or waveOut. Several popular players have plug-ins written for them, and we have used it successfully with Winamp and foobar200 players. Begining with V0.9, foobar2000 provides an optional ASIO pugin, which must be downloaded separateley.
To get things started, we recommend using the links below and trying the popular foobar2000 player. Once the driver dll is installed, it will appear as one of the options under Playback->Output on the Preferences menu. Select ASIO (dll version). Then on the Playback menu, make certain the Output Data Format is set to "32 bit fixed point", otherwise you will get an error when you try and play a file.
Use the "Off-Line Settings" application for ASIO4All to select the stereo-link as the active device. You should select a buffer size of at least 512, more if you find that you are getting pauses.
When using ASIO, the WAVE and CD volume controls on the Windows mixer will be disabled. This is a simple way of checking that the ASIO driver is active.