What is Your Computer Based System?

[garylkoh]

Idiocratease, there are some Win7 tweaks that might help, and may even improve your playback. More information is in the Music Server Project thread here:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?1201-Music-Server-Project

 

[Vincent Kars]

Replace XP with win 7, and massive Improvement.

A simple one is to try WASAPI instead of DS (Direct Sound, Wins’s audio engine)
WASAPI (in exclusive mode) talks straight to the sound card bypassing the Win audio engine.
I perceive it as a bit more transparent than DS.
You need a media player supporting this driver: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MC14/MC_Wasapi.htm

 

[Idiocratease]

Thanks Vincent, I have seen this website before, also had foobar/ asio suggestions before. I tried asio4all before with wmp, but found it unreliable. But I have seen much good advice on this forum, and acted on your suggestion.

J River seems great, and also combines the eye candy of wmp, with the great functionality of media monkey. And it supports the wasapi which sadly WMP does not.

Yeh, so I checked the full functionality trial, and was quite suprized that there was indeed a tangible improvement in the sound. Some of this might be the clip protection with is on by default, but also I would say there was a reduction in noise floor... A bit cleaner.

Well thanks, and I have purchase this. I confess to being a bit more p@ss with microsoft for not sorting out the wasapi driver in the 1st place!

Here's a link http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Windows-7-Audio-J-River-Media-Center-14-Configuration