[AthenaZephyrian]

Hey all.

I have a DAC capable of 32 bit, DSD-enabled audio, but Foobar refuses to let me do more than 16 bit, even with FLAC files I know qare 24 or 32 bit. I've also tried it with my other DAC, which is 24-bit capable, with the same results. Tries ASIO as well, hoping this would change it, but the 32 bit DAC still read out a 16 bit bitrate.

I've heard this may be down to windows or my laptop. I'm running Win10 on an HP Omen. Thanks for the help!

 

[Monsterzero]

Have you changed the settings in Windows to output up to 24 or 32 bit?

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

Have you changed the settings in Windows to output up to 24 or 32 bit?

Ah no how do I do that? I have a hammer, if that works.

 

[Monsterzero]

You see that speaker icon bottom right of your screen? Right click on it,open sound settings,Device Properties,left click,click on Advanced settings and there you should find a drop down menu to set it to whatever bitrate you want.

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

Yup I figured it out about 15 seconds after I pressed send lol. I just didn't expect it to be that simple... thanks!

 

[Monsterzero]

No probs

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

Welp, now FLAC files sound different... huh. This is interesting. It used to be I had a hard time differentiating 320kbps and FLAC. Now, with a song with some cymbals, especially a particularly complex piece, it's actually reasonably audibly different.

 

[Roseval]

As you are running Foobar, try the WASAPI component.
You will bypass the Win mixer entirely.
This will give you automatic sample rate switching as well
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/Foobar.htm

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

As you are running Foobar, try the WASAPI component.
You will bypass the Win mixer entirely.
This will give you automatic sample rate switching as well
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/Foobar.htm

Ah, but then I can't EQ (and my current headphones, HE400i, aren't flat; they have recessed mids and sucked out or spiked sections of treble). And I'm about to buy a pair of Stax L300's driven by a parasound Z-amp v3 and Woo Wee converter. There are no analog volume controls on the Woo or Parasound, and unless someone wants to buy my beautiful steampunked/dieselpunked Little Dot I+...I can't afford to throw a preamp on top of that. Maybe there's a way to rig up a simple potentiometer with RCA/speaker I/O and nothing else on a silicon wafer for volume control. That I could afford.

Otherwise, I'd go deaf in 30 seconds.

I managed to get 32 bit anyway

 

[Roseval]

I'm not familiar with Foobar but to the best of my knowledge it does have a build-in EQ and volume control

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

I'm not familiar with Foobar but to the best of my knowledge it does have a build-in EQ and volume control

As a matter of fact, the inbuilt EQ is pretty lame, but a Kjaerhus audio VST plugin eq (GEQ-7) is decent, and actually sounds much better than the EQ I was using. Thanks for motivating me to try it out.

 

[Zenvota]

Ah, but then I can't EQ

Ah the bane of windows music/htpc use, I'm constantly changing bit depth and sample rates in windows for old movies and anime, lpcm 16bit 48khz 2.0 this 24 48 5.1 that. If you listen to full albums its fine but playlists of random file types wont be fun. For the 400is you get bass from space from the drivers and you can smooth out the treble with a layer of thin felt.

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

Ah the bane of windows music/htpc use, I'm constantly changing bit depth and sample rates in windows for old movies and anime, lpcm 16bit 48khz 2.0 this 24 48 5.1 that. If you listen to full albums its fine but playlists of random file types wont be fun. For the 400is you get bass from space from the drivers and you can smooth out the treble with a layer of thin felt.

Yeah, you can cut the treble with felt, but there's some serious nonlinearity as well, and you won't get the crispness of true flat.

 

[Zenvota]

Yeah, you can cut the treble with felt, but there's some serious nonlinearity as well, and you won't get the crispness of true flat.

I'm no expert so probaby just ignore this, but I think with a layer or ring of felt is more about smoothing peaks/nulls than reducing db level.

And with headphones the uncompensated curves generally show more treble energy due to the way we hear, whereas loudspeakers would shoot for an actual flat response.

I use a program( fongaudio.com ) that applies measurements of loudspeakers and I find I have to eq alot of treble energy off or it just sounds noisy, but once I eq it, phew, amazing.

Heres the eq i hit my EL-8s with:

Sounds awful without the program though.

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

I'm no expert so probaby just ignore this, but I think with a layer or ring of felt is more about smoothing peaks/nulls than reducing db level.

And with headphones the uncompensated curves generally show more treble energy due to the way we hear, whereas loudspeakers would shoot for an actual flat response.

I use a program( fongaudio.com ) that applies measurements of loudspeakers and I find I have to eq alot of treble energy off or it just sounds noisy, but once I eq it, phew, amazing.

Heres the eq i hit my EL-8s with:

Sounds awful without the program though.

Like Roomwizard EQ? And yeah, I know about the Harmann Response Curve. I have it EQ'd so it will sound non-Harmann neutral, which, to some ears, is bright, but nowhere near as bright as Grados. When it gets too bright, IME you begin to lose detail again, and clarity plummets, so I understand what you're getting at.