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In Reply to: Re: Why is the system volume still used when the SPDIF is used? posted by slwiser on January 8, 2007 at 15:37:15:
Thank you for your reply.
So if I get a new sound card I can get a true digital out?
Could you recommend an audiophile sound card?
There is tons of room in this thing, so size shouldn't be an issue.
Follow Ups:
If digital PCI sound card is what a you want for the price the Juli@ from ESI is hard to beat. Search google for ESI-Juli@. Or you can use a USB interface, there are several available from the HagUSB (www.hagtech.com), UD-10 (http://www.trendsaudio.com/EN/Product/USB_Audio_desc.htm ), at http://www.empiricalaudio.com/ you can fine a very high-end usb interface.In other words you have lots of options. There are some cheaper options to these as well but I am not sure about their quality.
I went to the Empirical site and was thoroughly confused.
I guess I will have to wait for the experts to find a solution using Vista.
Thanks
Tom
Tom:Most of us around here know quite a bit about great soundcards... for Windows 2000 / NT / XP.
Some companies are having "problems" getting drivers approved by Microsoft for Vista (or something of this nature) likely due to the totally invasive nature of DRM (digital rights management) in Vista.
What software are you using for playback? I might have a workaround solution for you.
Here is a little clip from the M-Audio knowlege base. M-Audio makes some pretty nice pro-sumer soundcards:
Windows Vista Drivers
Q: I’m thinking of installing Windows Vista on my system. Does M-Audio currently offer any drivers that support Windows Vista?A: Currently, M-Audio does not offer any drivers (beta or otherwise) that support Windows Vista. As Vista drivers become available they will be posted to our drivers page. If a driver is offered during the beta (pre-release) phase of its development, you will need to click the “show beta drivers” option on the drivers page in order to view and download that particular driver.
Please note that the current “Windows 64-bit” beta drivers offered on this website do not support Windows Vista.
We ask that you please refrain from contacting M-Audio Technical Support for information on the availability or future availability of Windows Vista drivers at this time. All relevant information regarding the availability of Vista drivers will be made public via this FAQ and/or the drivers download page as soon as it becomes available. Technical Support cannot provide any information or insight on driver availability that is not already posted publicly on this website.
Even Lynx Studio Technology - makers of some of the finest (and most expensive) soundcards on the planet - make no mention of Vista OS support anywhere on their website.
Buyer beware...
In Reply to: Be careful here: posted by Presto on January 8, 2007 at 16:09:06:
Is there a mailing list/RSS feed we could subscribe to know when M-Audio Revolution 7.1/5.1 drivers for Vista will be available?
the words "piss" and "poor" spring to mind.I still use a DIO2448 as it does exactly what I want - gives me pro-quality SPDIF in/out via coax (or optical), not some crappy "break-out" D-connector.
Unfortunately, despite the fact it was only introduced in 1999, M-audio never bothered to release drivers beyond beta for Win2000/XP, and although SPDIF-out works well (having actually optimised my Win2K box around it - no ACPI, dedicated IRQ etc.), you can't record (use SPDIF in) because the native M-audio 'control-panel' won't install - I had to set up a second Win98 boot-partition.
Bear in mind that this was not a cheap piece of hardware - over £110GBP in 2000, and a lot of people probably ended up consigning them to the loft soon after, when they migrated from DOS-based Windows. Not impressive.
Hey ALeksunder:Yes, complaints about M-Audio's drivers are common all over the internet. I think it was worse "back when" - I think they've stepped up to the plate somewhat.
The only M-Audio product I own is a more modern higher end 7.1 channel (8 channel 24/192 with 24/96 SPDIF) soundcard (M-Audio Revolution 7.1). The drivers work flawlessly and so does the card, and honesty I did not expect this sort of sound quality from a $120 (Canadian dollars) soundcard. My only beef with the drivers is that there is no ASIO support for the SPDIF output, but this can be overcome using kernel streaming techniques.
If the card had a better pre-amp out section it could rival high-buck audiophile gear. But you can only fit so much quality on a PCI card! ;)
The SPDIF output seems to be low in jitter - it provides a VERY black background into my Behringer DCX2496 and loads of detail.
My next card is either going to be a custom USB solution, multiple SPDIF PCI cards, or a high-buck professional solution from Lynx or RME. Still humming and hawing.
If your 2448 can do 16/44.1 bit perfect perhaps all is not lost! ;)
"The SPDIF output seems to be low in jitter - it provides a VERY black background into my Behringer DCX2496 and loads of detail."Indeed, that's exactly what i get from the DIO2448, out via a broadcast video-coax to an Audio Alchemy DAC. No question, this is good hardware.
It really is sweet to listen to (Foobar, monkey's-audio files, kernel-streamimg)
The only problem I have with having to boot into the 2nd Win98 partition for recording is that this restricts my Win2K partition to 8GB.
Could linux be a solution for PC-Audiophiles?Linix seems to be pretty open and the number of support is growing...
A partition of the HD and using linux for audio may be what the Dr. ordered.
Most Linux distributions are free - try (for example) Damn Small LInux running from a flash drive. However, the majority of hardware manufacturers don't offer standard drivers for Linux, and although there is good third party support, often the last i/f to get support is spdif.A good minimalist multimedia distribution to try is Geexbox. It supports just about every mm format(sound, TV, DVD), can even use a Hollywood card for both video & sound support, is free,runs from CD, and the total size is around 3MB.Full sources are around 18MB.
BTW, general consensus seems to be that the third party (ALSA) general purpose sound card driver up-samples to 48K, and not particularily well.
What general purpose ALSA driver are you talking about? All the ALSA drivers I've worked with will only resample if they have to, such as using an AC97 device that ONLY works at 48KHz.If you use the HW interface ALSA won't do anything to the data unless you explicitly tell it to. If you use the plug interface it CAN do some munging under the hood if it needs to but thats usually only if the card doesn't support the format being used.
If you could point me to where people are discussing ALSA munging data I'd appreciate it, I have not seen this at all and I've been doing a lot of work with ALSA.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=24ce36e12844c747ef09e182e2b077be&threadid=93315
Actually, you can download any number of the various varieties of Linux for free and burn your own bootable CDs for installation. (You will want a broadband connection, though.) I've used Fedora Core for years (which is connected with Red Hat, the version for businesses that need a lot of tech support.)
I've been dabbing around the last year or so with Ubuntu ver 5, now 6. I'm running this Aopen Tube motherboard, wireless G card, Flat Panel monitor, 128bit video card, it seem to find all the drivers for the board with no problems, gave me generic video card drivers at 1024x1600, had to miss-around with the wireless card to get it working, works fine. Tons of software to download for Ubuntu, from Winamp types, to iPod apps, you get Mozilla, Openoffice, tons of mail clients to install. If you’re pretty comfortable with using Linux, no need to go back to Windows. Unless you have to work in Windows everyday like I do. Runs fine on a 1.7mhz Intel chip.
Hello Presto,
I have been finding a lot of things wont run with Vista yet.
I am using Media center to play music with.
I may need to wait for new products.
Thanks
Tom
I am not using Vista so I was unaware of this particular Vista issue. Thanks for the clarification. What about those devices that play off the windows USB drivers themselves like the HagUSB interface?
nt
I used Vista RC2 on my audio PC and found that it didn't sound as good as XP. There was also no facility for unmapping a device.
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