Verify Foobar output quality?

O

OldSchool

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
477
So I just got a nice pair of Kenwood L-07M monoblocks and matching preamp and I plan on breaking them in tonight. I have a collection of high quality FLAC (24bit 96Khz+) which I will be playing through my sound card (HT Omega Claro), and I was wondering if there is some way to actually verify what the sound card is decoding, some sort of statistical view of the stream going to the DAC or something. I am not sure if I am explaining this correctly but I am trying to find proof that the stream isn't being tampered with by anything?

I recall reading about some sort of output plugins for Foobar that people recommend for bit accuracy? Are these primarily for use with external DACs? And on that subject, I was considering some sort of external DAC with a tube output stage, does anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably priced unit that fits that description?
 
Easy. Output via S/PDIF straight back into a S/PDIF input that allows for 24-bit/96 kHz recording (or, preferably, an AES input). Record. Do a bit comparison. Done.

Is there any reason to actually do this? No. Do you need to use a plug-in to ensure playback accuracy? No.
 
Use a plugin for either WASAPI or Kernel Streaming or ASIO - I don't think any of these necessarily sound any better (or more accurate or whatever else) than straight Directsound, but a bunch of people make a lot of claims about them. Try them and see if you notice anything useful.

You can also go in and disable any processing there might be (replaygain or anything else) because I know a lot of purists dislike all of that, too.

My foobar outputs to wasapi to my nuforce and it has no effects processing or eq or anything else enabled. I've got nothing against any processing or eq or whatever else - I just like to keep it simple and wasapi prevents any other sounds from jumping in over my music regardless of source (web browser ad, for example).
 
timestretch said:
Use a plugin for either WASAPI or Kernel Streaming or ASIO - I don't think any of these necessarily sound any better (or more accurate or whatever else) than straight Directsound, but a bunch of people make a lot of claims about them. Try them and see if you notice anything useful.
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Is foobar2000 even using DirectSound anymore? I can't seem to find any documentation as to what it's using as a default output mechanism — it could very well already be going through WASAPI.
 
phide said:
Is foobar2000 even using DirectSound anymore? I can't seem to find any documentation as to what it's using as a default output mechanism — it could very well already be going through WASAPI.
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Go to your preferences and output menu in Foobar. You can choose from DirectSound or whatever else you have plugins for, for whatever audio hardware you have active and connected to your computer. There is even possibility of nulloutput. Wasapi is a plugin that is not part of the default install.

FUuXD.png
 
Foobar2000 v1.1 on Windows 7 - It just looks funny because I set the theme to windows classic and changed all of the color settings. Orange on black is pretty easy on my eyes in my dim-to-dark room.
 
I use kernel streaming with foobar to my Sondigo Inferno (CMI8788) In the C-Media control panel at least for this card you can actually manually set the sampling rate that gets input to the DAC (and sets the optical output at the same time), and all streams sent to the mixer get resampled to this (unless they match it, then they are passed unmolested). I don't know about your card though, something similar might also exist in the windows control panel but I'm not sure.

Dustin
 
dustNbone, whenever you reply to a thread I've posted in, I feel like you are talking just to me, because my name is Dustin and you sign every one of your posts with Dustin - (which I know is just a signature you put in, and not a direct address to me, but it still catches me off-guard).
 
timestretch, that's funny I just moved into a bachelor suite in a house where one of my landladys kids is named Dustin. When he gets yelled at by his mom it takes me a second to realize that I'm not guilty!
 
dustNbone said:
timestretch, that's funny I just moved into a bachelor suite in a house where one of my landladys kids is named Dustin. When he gets yelled at by his mom it takes me a second to realize that I'm not guilty!
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That is rather funny.
 
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