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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 19 for Windows => Topic started by: bjas on March 11, 2014, 01:44:42 pm

Title: USB Dac Driver ASIO Compliance & JRiver MC - ASIO 2.1 or 2.2
Post by: bjas on March 11, 2014, 01:44:42 pm

Does anyone have any thoughts on the differences between USB Dac drivers that are ASIO 2.1 and ASIO 2.2 compliant and how those differences relate to working with the latest version and build of JRiver Media Center?

Does JRiver have a preference for USB Dac drivers that are either ASIO 2.1 or ASIO 2.2 compliant their player?

Thoughts on both the functionality and sound quality, if any, of the differences between USB Dac drivers that are ASIO 2.1 and ASIO 2.2 compliant are enormously welcome.

Thank in advance for your replies.

Title: Re: ASIO USB Dac Driver Compliance - ASIO 2.1 or 2.2
Post by: Hendrik on March 11, 2014, 01:46:37 pm

I can tell you that MCs ASIO support is build against 2.2.
I personally don't have enough experience with the past of ASIO to tell you where the difference to 2.1 is, but using 2.2 seems preferable as that is what most tools seem to be written for these days.

Title: Re: ASIO USB Dac Driver Compliance - ASIO 2.1 or 2.2
Post by: mojave on March 11, 2014, 02:07:26 pm

ASIO 2.1 was released in 2005 and supported DSD. ASIO 2.2 was released in 2006 and included support for 64-bit operating systems. I don't know what other changes these versions had. With such a short time period for 2.1, I can't imagine that many drivers were written for it.

Title: Re: ASIO USB Dac Driver Compliance - ASIO 2.1 or 2.2
Post by: bjas on March 11, 2014, 02:34:28 pm

Thank you, Hendrik and mojave.

I've done quite a bit of research on USB dacs and have found that quite a few of them, especially the DSD USB Dacs, supply drivers that are ASIO 2.1, not ASIO 2.2 compliant. It's possible that most of the dac drivers were written upon the introduction of DSD to ASIO 2.1 in 2005 and cost concerns kept the drivers from being updated to ASIO 2.2 compliance (released in 2006). It is interesting, though, that some DSD USB Dacs, such as the Teac UD-501, were introduced after the ASIO 2.2 release (2006) but are supplied with ASIO 2.1, not ASIO 2.2, compliant drivers. It’s all a bit puzzling and makes me wonder if the choice between ASIO 2.1 and ASIO 2.2 compliant drivers is a non-issue.

Thanks again for your reply.

Title: Re: ASIO USB Dac Driver Compliance - ASIO 2.1 or 2.2
Post by: mykillk on March 14, 2014, 06:47:49 pm

Quote from: bjas on March 11, 2014, 02:34:28 pm

It’s all a bit puzzling and makes me wonder if the choice between ASIO 2.1 and ASIO 2.2 compliant drivers is a non-issue.

Thanks again for your reply.

64-bit OSs are backwards compatible with 32-bit drivers so I think that's the likely explanation. Heck, I just installed a 15 year old HP plotter-printer driver on 64-bit Windows 7 the other day :)

If the only thing that changed between ASIO 2.1 and 2.2 is native x64 support then yea, I wouldn't worry too much about it.