Basic Foobar configuration (1st&2nd posts)

[Deleted]

Thanks Javier.

I was just pricing it all up;
board, new RAM 'cos DDR3, cpu, other bits 'n' bobs and was heading towards £400

As I'm overdue a new laptop I'll probably go that route instead and leave the mini-itx running DS. Lots of homework to do as it's been a long time since I looked at this.

I'll probably go for a "last-years-model" to save a few bucks but hopefully end up with i3/i5, Win7pro, capability of at least 8GB RAM, HDMI out, USB3, min. 15" screen, DVDRW for around £400-500.

Nobody at home needs my current Dell so I'll probably flog it off to pay for ancillaries.

[Deleted]

Chris, if you use your current Atom as a starting base and reuse as many parts as possible such case, DVD-ROM/RW and HDD the bill won't go that high.

I just checked at Alternate and got this:

CPU: Core i3 2100 -> 117.9€
MB: Asus P8H77-I -> 107.9€
RAM: GSkill 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR1333 -> 17.49€

Shipping: 9€

Total: 252.39€ (Inc. VAT) if you buy for the Rst. and deduce VAT -> 208.58€

Personally I don't like laptops and only used when away on holidays, they are not designed for performance but for power consumption and are hardly upgradable but horses for courses.

Cheers

[Deleted]

Javier,

I agree laptops have little scope for upgrading and although in recent months my lappy has stayed mostly in one spot that is not typical of my usage. Maybe having a decent smartphone has brought the change, not sure.

I seem to be caught between the devil and the deep blue sea on choice of mini-itx upgrade, if wanting to keep cost down.

On the one hand there are the items you kindly searched and linked to; for this my Asus Xonar DS (PCI) would become defunct and need to be replaced by DX (PCI-e) or similar if I want ASIO. OR, necessitate win7.

On the other the boys at mini-itx store recommended the Intel D2700MUD which does support PCI but is obviously less powerful and does not have USB3 etc.

Decisions

[Deleted]

The Intel board you linked looks like it is an Atom one, not much point in "upgrading" from Atom to Atom IMVHO. Not much sense in sticking to PCI when it is a dead end.
Now that you have USB->I2S adapters and DACs, why would you miss the DS? Still, you could always get a PCIe card when funds allow and in the meanwhile use the stock Toslink or HDMI?

[Deleted]

New stable 1.1.16 version of Foobar just released.
1st post of this thread updated with change/fix/new log and DL link.

Nothing special added, mostly tag related but one thing that has been quite improved, at least in my PC, is much shorter time to open if you have long playlists.

[XTRProf]

Mine still at v14a version for awhile already. So v16 now and, yup, the most immediate thing I noticed is that it loaded very fast.

[Deleted]

The album art on my setup is now square as it should be, always was squashed looking before, plus instant start now.

Syd

[Deleted]

Thanks Javier

[Crispy]

I thought I would try the plug-in Burninate to burn CD's from Foobar, but every time I try to burn a CD I get the following message.

Audio CD burning process failed: Unsupported recorder mode (0xC0AA0208)

Anybody out there had the same problem? If so how did you overcome it - all help greatly appreciated.

Chris

[Deleted]

Maxim has just released a new beta version of the foo_dsd_asio proxy (part of the foo_SACD_input plugin) that is capable of converting PCM to DSD64 or DSD128 in real time. It provides with 4 different methods of conversion and 2 choices for DSD sampling rate (64 & 128).

Unfortunately it only works with ASIO compatible drivers so us Amanero users are out of luck until Domenico finally releases them.

[XTRProf]

Oct 31, 2012 18:42:24 GMT @javier said:

Maxim has just released a new beta version of the foo_dsd_asio proxy (part of the foo_SACD_input plugin) that is capable of converting PCM to DSD64 or DSD128 in real time. It provides with 4 different methods of conversion and 2 choices for DSD sampling rate (64 & 128).

Unfortunately it only works with ASIO compatible drivers so us Amanero users are out of luck until Domenico finally releases them.

Err, why convert to DSD when it's already in PCM? Anyway, most music files are of PCM originally.

[Deleted]

Nov 1, 2012 18:59:57 GMT XTRProf said:

Err, why convert to DSD when it's already in PCM? Anyway, most music files are of PCM originally.

The only sound reason I can think of is some DACs and/or media players make a "pop" sound when switching from one format to the other so feeding them only one will deal with the problem. Beyond that, some think DSD sounds "subjectively" better than PCM but you know how that works, right?

On the other hand, most if not all current recordings start their life in DSD format. R2R ADCs disappeared from the market a very long time ago, all current production chips are low bit Sigma Delta types and they capture sound in PDM (Pulse Density Modulation) format which is then decimated into PCM (Pulse Code Modulation). So, actually most music files from a techincal point of view are DSD originally and unless you have an R2R DAC they will be DSD the moment before they are converted to analogue. As an example, the DSD1792 in your DAC is Sigma Delta and converts PCM to DSD before turning the signal into an anlogue one.

[XTRProf]

Nov 1, 2012 22:33:23 GMT @javier said:

The only sound reason I can think of is some DACs and/or media players make a "pop" sound when switching from one format to the other so feeding them only one will deal with the problem. Beyond that, some think DSD sounds "subjectively" better than PCM but you know how that works, right?

On the other hand, most if not all current recordings start their life in DSD format. R2R ADCs disappeared from the market a very long time ago, all current production chips are low bit Sigma Delta types and they capture sound in PDM (Pulse Density Modulation) format which is then decimated into PCM (Pulse Code Modulation). So, actually most music files from a techincal point of view are DSD originally and unless you have an R2R DAC they will be DSD the moment before they are converted to analogue. As an example, the DSD1792 in your DAC is Sigma Delta and converts PCM to DSD before turning the signal into an anlogue one.

Actually, I prefer the PCM sound over DSD although DSD can sound more analog with better imaging and give a better volume illusion of the recording venue. To me PCM sounds closer to Live!

Err, I'm writing of the music files that we have are already mostly in PCM and converting to DSD will surely degrade the sound one more stage no matter how good DSD sound. It just doesn't make sense to convert to DSD from PCM. Same as asking the Oppo to convert to 24 fps from the native 60 fps in the DVD disc. There is a noticeable degradation of the picture quality more than an improvement from running the video at original 24 fps. Same for decompressing flac on the fly although claimed no CRC difference and lossless. KISS ............





Oops ............................

[Deleted]

Nov 3, 2012 0:01:29 GMT XTRProf said:

Actually, I prefer the PCM sound over DSD although DSD can sound more analog with better imaging and give a better volume illusion of the recording venue. To me PCM sounds closer to Live!

You are lucky, by not wanting DSD in your system you'll save yourself a lot of complications. Myself, I can't judge until I have the chance to listen to a high quality DSD system.
KISS in nowdays audio will necessarily be DSD as all ADC (Analogue to digital) converters are DSD and all nearly all DACs are native DSD too. So actully DSD is closer to Live!, PCM decimation only makes it more convenient to process but degrades and colours the original signal.

Nov 3, 2012 0:01:29 GMT XTRProf said:

Err, I'm writing of the music files that we have are already mostly in PCM and converting to DSD will surely degrade the sound one more stage no matter how good DSD sound. It just doesn't make sense to convert to DSD from PCM. Same as asking the Oppo to convert to 24 fps from the native 60 fps in the DVD disc. There is a noticeable degradation of the picture quality more than an improvement from running the video at original 24 fps. Same for decompressing flac on the fly although claimed no CRC difference and lossless.

As I said in my previous post, I agree on the PCM to DSD conversion with you though I don't agree there will be much degradation if any when correctly done. Don't forget that PCM will ALWAYS be converted to SDM/DSD before going analogue unless you use a R2R DAC, you cannot escape that. By doing the conversion inside the PC you can choose how it is done and use way better conversion algorithms than those inside the DAC chip which has very limited processing power. Also it makes possible to convert to DSD128, a very interesting format with better quantization noise performance than DSD64.

Unlike music, video doesn't try to get close to live, it tries to look like cinema which at the moment is 24fps. BTW, to get close to that you'll need proper calibration and disabling all your TV's image "enhacement" tricks, it is the ONLY way to be as close as the director wanted you to see the image, no subjective route here.

[Deleted]

2nd post of this thread updated with the instructions for the new PCM->DSD conversion included in V. 0.6.1 of the SACD plugin.

[Deleted]

New Foobar V. 1.1.17 released, first post updated. Mainly small fixes.

[rkay5]

Hi,
Thanks for the post on setting up foobar for DSD play back I have a few SACD ISO's and they sound very good played on foobar DSD -pcm 176.4.I also record alot of vinyl 88.2-192KHz and have been using AudioGate to convert WAV to .DSF and I feel the DSD/DSF files sound better than the WAV that they came from.Saving for a DAC that does DSD.

[JohnnyBlue]

Foobar V. 1.1.18 is out, deadlock detection disabled is the only change (so pleased to have spotted this before Javier could post here!).

[Deleted]

Thx. John, 1st post updated.

[Deleted]

New V. 3.1 beta for WASAPI output plugin.
It fixes a rare issue with mixed sample rate lists where sometimes the plugin would freeze until Foobar is stopped or song replayed from the beginning.

Link:
www.foobar2000.org/temp/WASAPI-beta/WASAPI-3.1-b1.fb2k-component

I have been using it since release and had no problems with it though I had never suffered the above mentioned fixed issue with any of my sound cards.

[Deleted]

:)Hi Javier,
anks for that - I'll try it later today because I do have mixed sample rates and foobar does ocassionally stop dead on me and have to be 'kicked' back into life. I'll let you know how I get on with it .
Cheers,
Dave.

UPDATE: -
When I click on the link I get a blank page - anybody else?

UPDATED UPDATE
I get a blank page when trying to open under IE but everything goes as expected when I open it under Chrome - strange or is it just me?

[Deleted]

Final V. 3.1 of the WASAPI plugin is available. No changes since beta.

1st post updated. Also included some extra information to the addenda:

-"Also since V. 3.0 it is possible to configure independently buffers for either mode and run the WASAPI process with real time priority. To access these settings follow this path:
File->Options->Preferences->Advanced->Playback->WASAPI"

[Deleted]

New beta 1 version 1.2 of Foobar released:

Changes/fixes:

- Support for streaming to arbitrary UPnP MediaRenderer devices through the new UPnP output component.
- FFmpeg is now used for MP3, AAC and Vorbis decoding
- Extended playback thread priority options in Advanced Preferences (MMCSS-> Multimedia Class Scheduler Service, more info: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms684247(v=vs.85).aspx) .
- New: Converter “Quick Convert” dialog, for simplified casual conversions without advanced features.
- New: Menu commands to switch between playback output devices.
- New: Component installer now shows component licenses when available.
- Package license.txt or license.rtf with the component to get it shown on install.
- License not shown when autoupdating components.
- Equalizer is now an open-source component, separate from the standard DSP array.

[Deleted]

foobar2000 v1.2 beta 2 has been released. Bugs found so far in the previous beta have been fixed (crashes, bad AAC channel order).

[JohnnyBlue]

Think I'll wait for the final version!