Grant Fidelity Audio - Read Only

[Yashu]

I use ASIO4ALL with this because I could not get the usb-audio.de driver to work with it (that is a pro driver, meant to give USB devices the lowest latency possible with the best SQ possible)

ASIO4ALL does work, and I can get full on bit-perfect 16bit/44.1, however, I heard there was a driver that would allow for a full output like an ASIO driver , but with the ability to go 24/96 and higher.

This would be ideal, and since my pro driver does't work, nor does Kernel Streaming, so a better solution than ASIO4ALL would be wonderful.

I use Winamp with a host of good input and output modules. ASIO out, I have an upsampler that can then plug in any output module (so it gets raised before it hits the output, very useful when using Kernel Streaming), the latest in_MAD output for mp3s... with 16bit output, the rectangualr dithering and no noise shaping seem the best. 24bit output, you can rid the dithering altogether, because the output plugin decodes very close to 24bit. It also has a 32bit output, but 24/96 is my goal. ASIO (or some other bit perfect/full range output), is the way to go. With computer audio, it always better to still have an analog pre do the volume control. Analog volume control, when it is done right, you get the full dynamic range, even at low volumes. Any volume on the computer is digital gain adjustment. The lower you go, the more bits are lost in terms of dynamic range.

My FLACs are all 16bit too, but if I had a driver that could do 24/96, I could upsample still. I do this at work. My main room is redbook with some tweaks and a different DAC. The DAC09 certainly holds it's own. At work, I upsample to 24/96 always, a great way to improve headphone listening. My main system can't do more thn 16bit/48khz, but I have a Monarchy DIP, so it re-clocks any 16bit signal for jitter free output. It only does 16/44.1, so if you feed it 24/96, it will downsample. I just give it the best 16bit audio I can. The DA09 is actually slightly sweeter than my tubed MHDT. My older MHDT is a little noisy... the stuff inside gives off too much EMF. My "new" MHDT tubed output DAC, it has a torroidal transformer, way better layout, no EMF leakage. The DAC09 is up there with it. I run the latst MHDT with a USB s/pdif output, and would never use the computer to adjust gain, nor would I on the DAC09.

Once I iron out one kink with it, the MHDT may sound good, but the DAC09 sounds just as good, but can do 24/96 and higher, along with all it's other uses.

I don't buy the arguments that the difference can't be heard. With a tube, it is even more important. The tube has a nice warm and sweet sound, and an analog line stage will capture this at almost any volume. Low volume on a digital gain in the computer is reducing dynamic range. At some point, you are going from 16 to 12 to 10 to 8 to 4, and so forth. Not ideal, for sure.

Anyone know what this driver is? I think lots people here would love to know as well.