24/88.2 Playback using RME 9632 + Benchmark DAC1

I just downloaded a 24/88.2 "master quality" track from www.linnrecords.com and the playback was like an "exam" of what I know so far. The experience was also a test of PC hardware, software, configuration, and the DAC.

First of all the song track I downloaded was a WMA file. Playback it via foobar showed 2425kbps/44.1KHz, i.e. it went beyond the foobar WMA decoder limitation. I needed 88.2KHz.

I attempted to convert it using Samplitude and it gave 16bit/88KHz wave file instead. It was the first time I paid US$5.8 for downloading a song and I was determined to get a true 24bit/88.2Khz wave file. So I searched through web and found our Slim Devices forum friends already tried and they used authentic MS decoder called "wmal2pcm.exe" to convert the file to wave file, so I downloaded the program and converted the music track to true native 24bit/88.2KHz. Cool!

So for the playback. First I tried to play the 24/88 wav file with Samplitude. Unfortunately Samplitude could not even open a 24bit/88.2Khz wave file. So I used foobar to playback the track. I set SRC to 88.2 to ensure foobar could playback both 24/88.2 and 16/44.1 tracks smoothly. The P42.8 CPU utilization jumped up to 36% but overall PC performance was still ok.

And the result: Very smooth sound that I never heard of before. Violin playback from R1SC was similar to Sonus Faber that I remember long time ago. No fatigue and I could playback the same track again and again. I am glad RME9632 and Benchmark lived up to their reputation and delivers not just 16/44, but 24/88.2 at exceptional quality. I look forward to the ultimate test: to playback a 24/192 track.

RAMDISK

Original post for RAMDISK:
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/messages/18574.html

(1) Get the RAMDISK from http://www.ramdisk.be/ Go for the "enterprise" solution.

(2) Goto Control Panel -> System -> hardware -> Device Manager -> RAM Drive
Build your own RAM disk, choose a drive letter say B:\

(3) Copy wav files to the new B:\ Drive

(4) Playback the songs on B:\ directly from Foobar or Samplitude

Result: install 左 RAM Drive 後同老闆玩估歌仔, 在 foobar 放 (1) 在 HDD 的 Best 100 Piano 的 Fantasia Impromtu 和 (2) 在 Ramdisk 的同一首歌, 估左兩次都中, RAM Disk 明顯 Detail 多左. 然後在 Samplitude 再 play 一次 Ram disk, 清到演奏者的抖氣聲都聽到...

iTune + Foobar 2000

iTune+Foobar using Multi-Plugin Pass-Through

Over the holiday I installed iTunes and Multi-plugin configured multi-plugin to use "Foobar2000 passthrough". So I have iTune as UI and Foobar 2000 as playback engine.

Multi-plugin official site as below:http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=41188

So I have iTunes 7.0.2 -＞ Multi-Plugin 2.5.1 -＞ Foobar 0.9.4.2 -＞ RME 9632 ASIO and it works ok.

Some notes though:

1. I don't know whether it is my illusion but I find pure foobar ASIO output is somewhat very slightly better than iTune-＞multi-plugin-＞foobar ASIO. Theoratically this shouldn't happen. The ultra high frequency of iTune seems quite strange.

2. I have to re-install a clean foobar with just ASIO and SRC to get multi-plugin to work properly.

3. I also minimize the buffer on both foobar and RME 9632 to just around 100-200ms

Foobar 2000 (And Related Components)

Foobar 是免費的 playback software. 一般認為比 wimamp 或 iTune 靚聲. 注意不同 version 的 foobar 有可能有少少不同聲.

foobar audio player:http://www.foobar2000.org/

foobar SRC upsampler component:http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC/fb2k.html

foobar Columns UI component:http://yuo.be/columns.php

LAME MP3 encoder (can be used with foobar or EAC):http://www.free-codecs.com/Lame_Encoder_download.htm

FLAC (can be used with foobar or EAC):http://flac.sourceforge.net/

EAC CD ripper:http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

DRC (Digital Room Correction)http://drc-fir.sourceforge.net/

ASIO4ALLhttp://asio4all.com/

online radio directoryhttp://www.liveradio.de/

album art
http://cherans.bol.ucla.edu/fooplugins.html

browser panel
http://wiki.bowron.us/index.php/Foobar2000

track info mod
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=47044&st=0

and album list
http://music.morbo.org/components.php

Secret Rabbit Code resampler
http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC/fb2k.html

VST Tube Preamp plugin
http://www.voxengo.com/product/tubeamp/

Bridge Plugin for Winamp DSP Plugin
http://pelit.koillismaa.fi/plugins/redir.php?id=615

software digital crossover
http://xover.sourceforge.net/

foobar wiki (lots of info and download link for foobar plugins)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar2000

foobar online radio component:http://acropolis.lokalen.org/wp-content/plugins/DownloadCounter/download.php?id=6

How to listen to radio using Foobar:

1. 到這個網頁下載foo_input_mslive.zip http://acropolis.lokalen.org/
2. unzip個檔案，會發現有個foo_input_mslive.dll檔，將佢放入foobar資料夾內的components資料夾即成
3. 邊度有大量網上電台的link?答案是iTunes，請打開iTunes的radio playlist，裡面分類精楚，選好自己想聽的電台，將佢drag過去foobar任何一個playlist都得
4. drag過去之後有時係domain name，有時係ip，無所謂，照doubleclick去play，好了，大功告成!!
5. 當然你亦可以去任何一個電台網站download個.pls檔案下來，再drag入foobar播放，效果相同e.g.:http://sky.fm/