WAV playing - Advices for beginner

Bit-Perfect playing WAVs - Advices for beginner

I'm just taking the first steps to get good stereo music from my WAVs through an entry-level system made up of a digital interface, a (digital) stereo amp and a pair of passive speakers running Windows 7 x64: no audio NAS, no media streaming, no music server intended.

I'm passionate and experienced about listening to music, both live and played within the walls of a room, but through my PC I have almost no experience at all and even if my PC-based system is currently an entry-level one I would like to (understand and to) get the max possible quality sound from, so I started reading and still reading articles and discussions, but now I'm a bit confused and would like to receive authoritative confirmations or even denials about some basic principles.

Running a capable software player is the Bit-Perfect playback applicable to WAV files?
If so, how do you get it?

I'm just trying 2 players that I like: Album Player (free) which I really like and JRiver Media Center (commercial) which I like enough, both with strengths and weaknesses and both with the ability to use the ASIO driver supplied with my audio interface.

I think I understand that if you use ASIO driver (or WASAPI too) for the Bit-Perfect playback then both Windows mixer and volume control are just bypassed and no longer functional, but I still can't get it: is the above true also playing WAV files?

Definitely, how to get theoretically and practically the best possible sound quality from my system playing WAV files under Windows 7?

Many thanks in advance for any appreciated addressing.
 
Last edited:
Copy the files to PC. Output stereo 3.5 mm (Walkman) off PC out to 2 RCA, which goes to analog amp....then speakers. Old Philips units, speakers and amp.

I use Winamp, sometimes VLC media player to play the files.

Audacity is quite versatile, but you can play only one file at a time it seems, at least on the version I have.
My PC has a Realtek sound chip, I can but have not set the equalizer available, I can do it in Winamp.
 
Most important is to output the music at 100% level, VLC can have gain and distorts when higher levels are played. Attenuation reduces the resolution



Audacity initially is a bit complicated, but you can zoom to see each single bit. In Multitrack mode you can load and play as many tracks as your computer is able to process.
You can also subtract tracks and when identical the output is zero.
 
Last edited:
In case you want to start at a manageable level: Foobar is a freeware player with a truckload of plugins, that you do not need now. Install Foobar on your PC. Get yourself a decent soundcard/interface, such as e.g. the Behringer or Focusrite USB units. That will get you started without information or complexity overload.You can work from there.