Wasapi - same problem here
Hi,
congratulations on this player. Like many others here I've tried pretty much every player I can find. I have a fairly top end set up - dCS Paganini 4 box dac, Burmester 911 amp, B&W801D speakers. I have high hopes that the dac's USB input should equal its transport - but there seam many things which affect the sound - bit perfect or not. I think I could describe the "sound" of each well known player and have others recognise the same issues. I love JRiver for its interface but the sound is just not quite there. Oh...and one pc to the next can sound quite different - I use laptops and the best I've found (soundwise - tried maybe 6 or so) so far is a little HP Pavilion dm1 laptop. Quite cheap and way better sounding than a flash Sony I also have. Beats me why.
Anyway like others here I find Pureplayer quite excellent even using the standard windows mixer path. When Wasapi is checked the player "processes" the track, then promptly moves on to process the next track without ever playing anything. It is using flacplay_wasapi. My dac requires 24 bit output format - perhaps this is the issue? In other players this must be set to provide only this format. I don't think it is something that can be set from Windows (my advanced usb device setting is 16 bit, 44.1, both boxes ticked).
I've no idea if Wasapi would sound any better anyway - but I'd like to try!
A request (for your wish list) - to be able to run a vst/dsp process - I prefer to use room correction if possible. This requires some sort of convolver. At a pinch I could batch pre-process all my music - that could keep a cpu running for quite a few days ;o)
Again - well done - many thanks!
Murray
Hi,
congratulations on this player. Like many others here I've tried pretty much every player I can find. I have a fairly top end set up - dCS Paganini 4 box dac, Burmester 911 amp, B&W801D speakers. I have high hopes that the dac's USB input should equal its transport - but there seam many things which affect the sound - bit perfect or not. I think I could describe the "sound" of each well known player and have others recognise the same issues. I love JRiver for its interface but the sound is just not quite there. Oh...and one pc to the next can sound quite different - I use laptops and the best I've found (soundwise - tried maybe 6 or so) so far is a little HP Pavilion dm1 laptop. Quite cheap and way better sounding than a flash Sony I also have. Beats me why.
Anyway like others here I find Pureplayer quite excellent even using the standard windows mixer path. When Wasapi is checked the player "processes" the track, then promptly moves on to process the next track without ever playing anything. It is using flacplay_wasapi. My dac requires 24 bit output format - perhaps this is the issue? In other players this must be set to provide only this format. I don't think it is something that can be set from Windows (my advanced usb device setting is 16 bit, 44.1, both boxes ticked).
I've no idea if Wasapi would sound any better anyway - but I'd like to try!
A request (for your wish list) - to be able to run a vst/dsp process - I prefer to use room correction if possible. This requires some sort of convolver. At a pinch I could batch pre-process all my music - that could keep a cpu running for quite a few days ;o)
Again - well done - many thanks!
Murray
Hi Sligolad,
I'm not so sure that really works. When I preprocess my flac files turn into wav files. When I play them, even with the wasapi box checked, they still play via the windows mixer (ie I can adjust the volume, which with Wasapi I shouldn't be able to afaik).
I've now tried playing 24 bit 44.1 and 48kHz flac files directly as well, but unfortunately the results remain the same as 16 bit - ie they just appear to process (I presume into something somehow invalid) then the next file is tried with the same result and the result cycles forever.
Hope this gives some extra hints as to what might be happening.
.
Excellent little app. I'm a diehard foobar fanboy, but your player is more revealing and has better imaging. Overall the sound is more realistic than foobar.
Unfortunately I badly need foobar's library & uPNP server. Perhaps the solution is to write it as foobar component (in my dream... :-( ). Or is there any way to integrate this player with foobar's library ?
Anyway thanks for your efforts and kindness to share this app.
Unfortunately I badly need foobar's library & uPNP server. Perhaps the solution is to write it as foobar component (in my dream... :-( ). Or is there any way to integrate this player with foobar's library ?
Anyway thanks for your efforts and kindness to share this app.
Hi,
Many thanks for the Pureplayer 2.7.1, I am playing my audio CD tracks via this player now and I am quite happy with the sound. I experience a few glitches which will probably be fixed with software updates.
I am using Windows 7 using Wasapi ticked in the Pure player window.
1. On normal Flac tracks it takes longer(compared to other s/w) to processing the tracks before sound can be outputted. Is this normal? BTW I am using an old pentium III 2.0G.
2. When playing tracks from an Audio CD in a laptop CD ROM, the first 1-2 secs of each track seems to be out of tune/mistacking. Is this normal?
Anyway it is a very good player better than foobar and Jriver.
Many thanks for the Pureplayer 2.7.1, I am playing my audio CD tracks via this player now and I am quite happy with the sound. I experience a few glitches which will probably be fixed with software updates.
I am using Windows 7 using Wasapi ticked in the Pure player window.
1. On normal Flac tracks it takes longer(compared to other s/w) to processing the tracks before sound can be outputted. Is this normal? BTW I am using an old pentium III 2.0G.
2. When playing tracks from an Audio CD in a laptop CD ROM, the first 1-2 secs of each track seems to be out of tune/mistacking. Is this normal?
Anyway it is a very good player better than foobar and Jriver.
Hi,
1. Yes this is normal. This player decompresses the flac and loads the whole wav produced to memory before playback.
2. It is a common issue (bug) and will hopefully be fixed soon.
Thanks
Well, this is what gets on my mind when reading the reports about "dramatically better sound" compared to other plain no-DSP players. I just do not understand how such difference could arise technically.
Well then either the other players employ some DSP or have bugs, the reporters exaggerate or... I do not know.
If you decode a flac to wav manually and play it using a decent command line memory player in high process priority the result will be the same. These 2 observations made me to start developing PurePlayer, there are no secrets or magic. Obviously the problem is related with the OS (Windows) implementation (threads, memory allocation, software buffers etc).
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You can also select the cue file and push "Play". This splits the cue and then you are able to select files. Unfortunately, on-the-fly cue playback is not possible, since PurePlayer first decodes the files. I will try to make it faster...
In order to disable virtual memory (highly recommended) you 'll need 3GB for Windows and backround applications + the size of your biggest audio file decompressed. I guess 5-8GB will be excellent, 4GB will be probably OK. Disabling any unneeded backround process (antivirus, daemons, windows services, visual effects) is also recommended.
Hello phofman.
What npetralias is doing is nothing else than what I'm doing under Linux (nowadays Squeezebox Touch) - as you know - and some others (CPLAY/CMP (XP), XXHIGHend (W7), Fidelizer (W7), PureMusic(OSX), and even JRMC, and many more ..... ) are doing since several years.
PC induced distortions can be lowered by optimizing the PC - the transport -
by tweaking it's software and hardware. Usually tweaking means to get the load down.
The effect has been proven a hundred million times.
That things like offline flac decoding and full file RAM playback are improving the soundquality are nothing new. You read that before on the Linux Audio thread over here or probably at my SB Touch Toolbox blog too.
Audio interfaces at any price level are still not immune against PC induced distortions. That's a real nightmare. Because the PC tweaking will never stop.
With every HW/SW change the situation can change. You can't rely on the PC as reliable steady source.
The main issue is that there is no audio interface which can manage those little PC induced rather physical distortions.
Those distortions make it all the way through to your speakers. The bits are bit-transparent. The physical surrounding is just poisoned.
I advise you to buy a good stereo system to get a chance -
after 4-5 years argueing against it - to experience the obvious.
Cheers
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