Do I need ASIO for Windows 7 ?

I am on Windows XP with Foobar.
I was wanting to try to move to Windows 7.
Is that 'recommended' ?
I use only computer for playback.
I am very happy with Foobar & XP.
Not very literate with computers & hence an a bit paranoid.
Suggestions would be appreciated.
DAC's used are Ayon Skylla & dCS Scarlatti [3 box] & DAD AX24.
Thanks,
Appreciate the feedback.

bhagwan

Schwinnindia... XP to Win7 is a jump of a lot of years of technology. Depending on its age and the availability of drivers your present computer may or may not be compatible with Win7. Run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor as a place to start.

For example, I have a dell inspiron 8600 notebook that just won't make the jump... too old.

Hello Pkubica !
Thanks for the reply;
The hardware in not an issue at all.
When I use a dCS Scarlatti, to make a new Server is 'pittens'
So cost is not an issue.
I could use the same Antec housing & Power Supply & change the Mother Board & Processor.
The million $ question is, what 'sounds' better ?
Windows 7 with Wasapi or XP with ASIO ?
I need to know sq & that is all that matters.....
Software in India is 'cheap' and rather easily available.
So having both installed on the [same] machine too is a possibility [boot them separately].

Suggestions & Observations would be much appreciated.

'bhagwan'

Windows XP and ASIO works just fine. If you are just sending PCM out a USB port there's no reason for anything as long as you configure your "player" correctly. Foobar can be configured not to change the bitstream, same for J. River Media player.

I'm assuming your using .WAV files or lossless compressed files, eg. FLAC. There's not much to reading a file, decompressing if necessary, and sending it out a USB port.

Schwinnindia...I'm years removed from running XP anything so I can't help with how an XP system sounds. However, I would feel very RAM limited with XP. The better players load into memory for a better delivery. With Win7 you can easily do an 8GB RAM system and with J River Media Center it's a very solid playback system for 24/96 and 24/192 files.