Do I need ASIO for Windows 7 ?

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.

Thanks Larry & Pkubica.
With a dCS Scarlatti, I can only play 16/44.
The Scarlatti does not accept more than that on USB.
My earlier Weiss Minerva used to accept & play 24/192. But that is gone.
I use foobar & prefer Flac to Wave [metadata].
However, I still have a bit of wave on my server.
'bhagwan'

Have you looked at system latency with WASAPI when comparing J. river 'play from memory' option. Streaming over LAN with WASAPI gives incredibly low latency (I have SSDs on bothe server and client), whereas dumping everything through memory causes a bit of a jump and can even strain the latency when doing 192kHz.