Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Audiothrill]

Hi,

One issue that persisted unsolved since I have started with ASIO and J River on MC13/14/15 on a Vista 64 Home Premium HP Touchsmart PC (on board soundmax deactivated in the BIOS) with one single USB sound device (Ayre QB9).

Supposing a new installation of MC on given settings results on perfect sound, pure bliss on ASIO or actually on kernel streaming - it appears that on a later moment the sound quality can change arbitrarily into somewhat slightly more harder and definitively less perfect than before...

This change remains then, even after rebooting. During rebooting a regular vibrating midfrequency noise can appear before entering the Windows password - it disappears, only when later a sound application (MC e.g.) is started and a track is chosen. The sound quality remains inferior then.

On the other hand a hard system crash or the installation of an actual build over MC resolves the problem properly for the moment.

My main suspect for the origin of this complication is the hidden use of Windows Media Center components by some applications for certain streaming Media, MC browser and/or Firefox eventually included. Is this possible?

Originally doubted on Quicktime too, but now together with Kernel streaming Quicktime gives outstanding audio with most of the file formats.

Does anybody have a deeper idea on this topic?





 

[JimH]

There was a thread on the Ayre a few months ago here.  You could try a search.  But first try this page on our wiki:
http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DAC_Settingshttp://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DAC_Settings

[Listener]

> it appears that on a later moment the sound quality can change arbitrarily into somewhat slightly more harder and definitively
> less perfect than before...

You may be seeing the effect of the Windows mixer when another output stream goes to the Ayre.  Once Windows sends audio through the mixer component, it may continue to do so long after the second stream ends.

You might consider restoring onboard sound and designating that as the default audio output device.  Explicitly select the Ayre in MC as the output device that MC will use.  MC will send the audio output to the Ayre and Windows will send everything that should go to the default device to the onboard sound device.

Bill

[Audiothrill]

Bill, you might have put the finger on a sensitive point! I have reactivated Soundmax then and I have to observe the system's behaviour now.

One obstacle I encountered allready: For "Kernel streaming" I assigned "Quicktime engine" to most of the file types, as all other options resulted in error messages on calling the files to play (namely "DC-Bass source" for m4a or "JRiver Input Plugin" for wav, OR "AUTOMATIC" for any file type). "ffdshow" seems not being properly loaded in my MC15, so I left it by side for the moment...

On the other hand Quicktime insists on using the default sound device, by consequence I cannot bypass Soundmax using Kernel streaming...

As a workaround I returned to ASIO which continues to give good results on various input options.


At this point: Thanks to everybody who can provide me with a link to a decent audio/input/file type tutorial!
 

Thanks JimH too for the other link too, I'll check that!




Andreas

[Matt]

The Quicktime engine will bypass JRiver outputs like ASIO, Kernel Streaming, etc.

For audiophile output quality, you should use the JRiver engine and get filters (if needed) to decode your files.  For ALAC, see this article in our wiki:
http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/MP4_and_M4A_File_Support#Apple_Lossless_Audio_Codec_.28ALAC.29

[Audiothrill]

Hey thanks Matt, I read in the link and for a start I applied DC Bass-source for m4a, mp3, wav, flac and it results all in good ASIO output. Kernel streaming obviously doesn't apply here.

But your answer makes me also loose some of my confidence. Quicktime Engine and (...bypassed!?) Kernel streaming sounded for me definitively much better than usual directsound (...or iTunes) output... was I chasing ghosts then? 

[Matt]

Hey thanks Matt, I read in the link and for a start I applied DC Bass-source for m4a, mp3, wav, flac and it results all in good ASIO output. Kernel streaming obviously doesn't apply here.

Do not use third-party filters except when absolutely necessary.  Media Center has native, and very good, WAV, MP3, FLAC, and many others support.  M4A is the only type you need an external decoders for, and this is because of its proprietary nature.

But your answer makes me also loose some of my confidence. Quicktime Engine and (...bypassed!?) Kernel streaming sounded for me definitively much better than usual directsound (...or iTunes) output... was I chasing ghosts then?

You can use Kernel Streaming or ASIO with any of the file types you listed.  It will provide better quality than Quicktime or iTunes.  You configure the audio output in Options > Audio.

[Audiothrill]

OK, I understand. I've changed my settings and ASIO works, so no need for seeking more far than necessary. The sound is good too - thanks!