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[bjas]

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.

[Hendrik]

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.

[mojave]

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.

[bjas]

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.

[mykillk]

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.