Wow Windows Vista sounds sooo much better


I just installed Vista. I was not happy with the sound I was getting from my benchmark dac1. This thing got such great reviews but it never sounded right to me. It was way to soft with some voices and drums. Like there was this huge suckout. It drove me nuts. Certain ranges were way to low and behind a vail. I knew this coundn't be right. I could never get into the music enough.

Foobar2000 and Asio was better than not having it. But not what it should be. I did every thing. I did the whole asio, kernal streaming, asio4all, bitmatched, etc. Checked all settings. Tried different digital cables. Messed with EVERYTHING in my drivers and foobar2000.

As a last ditch effort before selling the DAC I thought I'd try Windows Vista. After all I knew Microsoft completely revamped its audio section. No more k-mixer was the big plus. Sounded good on paper anyway.... but lets see if it was truely implemented well.

I get home, install Vista (clean install). Go through all the settings first. Turn off any extra junk that comes turned on with the x-fi drivers.

Went to windows settings.... how pleasantly surprised to find setting for 24 bit, 96 khz setting (and any other settings too).

Went to foobar2000... how pleasantly surprised to find an option for "spdif out". That option allows for direct by-pass now. No longer routing through anything in windows. I tried this but it was full blast. I needed a volume control though. Again pleasantly surprised that using windows Vista volume sounds just as amazing. No loss in quality what so ever.

I no longer need any special asio drivers, or kernal streamers or any of that junk. I can now use all my audio and video apps and have just as great of sound.

I'm really floored what a difference Vista makes. All the power and dynamics and soundstage is there. Just how it should sound. A big thumbs up to microsoft for fixing all tha was wrong with xp's sound. I highly recommend upgrading. Thumbs up!
kacz
Here is a post (#39) of David A. Hoatson, co-founder of Lynx Studio Technology on harmony-central.com :

Vista will work just fine if you are only using ASIO, since that bypasses everything Microsoft. If you do use the WDM driver (MME/DirectSound/Direct Kernel Streaming), then you are forced to use Microsoft components, and there are some new limitations with Vista.
The biggest problem at the moment revolves around sample rate support with Vista. Vista wants to be in complete control of the sample rate. That means that any application that used to set the sample rate by itself (CoolEdit Pro comes to mind), can no longer do so. The user must manually set the sample rate in the Audio Control Panel for the device in use. This also means that if you are clocking externally, as soon as the external sample rate changes you must also go into the Audio Control Panel and set the same rate there, otherwise you will not get audio. Some audio cards may get around this limitation with a driver rewrite (the code changes required are not easy), while others may decide that pro audio users really will just use ASIO and leave it at that.

Another issue has to do with device naming. Microsoft completely changed where the device names come from, and Vista the names of the devices by itself (with XP, the driver had complete control over how devices were named). This presents an interesting issue when dealing with a pro audio card that is also used for high-end home theater applications. To allow multi-channel playback for DVDs, the device must be named "Speakers" otherwise Vista simply won't present the Speaker Configuration to let the user select how many speakers they have. In a multi-card configuration, you end up with multiple devices all named "Speakers" which can be confusing to the user.

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1521198&page=2
A new version Of ASIO4All is available for download now Version 2.8 BETA 1. Comparing it to the KS: USB DAC output in Foobar.It sounds basically the same too me. So take your pick.

Since I only use this PC for two channel using a USB DAC. I have no concerns. I can run mutli channels from the spdif output if need be. The Vista is sounding terrific none the less.

I just received my USB+Paradisea today. The sound is open and lush. I could spend the entire day listening and never become fatigued by this sound.

Good listening
I was supposed to get a free express upgrade to Vista as a rebate for my new Sony VAIO.

It seems, however, that I have missed the deadline.

Now, I see that there are several versions of Vista.

Can someone please explain -- which version would be best to buy if a) I dont have monstrous amounts of RAM and b) my main concern is streaming WAV files to an external DAC?

Thank you.
here is how my three week old $1500 duocore computer sounded:

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That was after a fatal error that froze the computer beyond repair.

BanG Bang Bang. That is my Vista computer after I returned it and it was scrapped.