Hello, I'm at my wits end with my audio setup and really hope someone here can help.

I'm trying to playback MP3' or WAV files using Winamp 5.01 through the SPDIF output on my Audiophile 2496. The problem is that I'm getting periodic pops/noise on the output. They occur about twice a second.

The same setup works without a hitch when I'm playing back WAV or MP3 files through Cubase or Wavelab.

I've contact technical support at Maudio. They said that Windows does not use the ASIO driver that Cubase or Wavelab are using. I said that's great, and asked how to get windows to go about using them. They had no answer.

I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me out with this.

I have an Athlon 2400, 512MB ram and MSI KT333 motherboard if that helps.

maybe the first post was too wordy....

basically how does one get winamp to work with an spdif output through an asio driver?

and, is there a way to get winamp to output 24 bit audio (to spdif output) even if the files are 16 bit?

please, any thoughts?

Hi -

It seems you're living thru the very same hell I went thru trying to get my M-audio Dio2448 to output cleanly via SP/DIF.

EDIT > read your post a little more carefully, and I see you're not having probs via the ASIO driver.

As far as I know, unless the software in question allows you to select ASIO, it isn't used.

Th problem you're having is probably IRQ related, specifically IRQ crowding - coutesy of 'ACPI', which is a great idea for everything except - audio.

The only fix (in my case) was reinstalling Windows2000 (oh yes!) after first disabling ACPI ( most modern MBs are ACPI compliant, and Windows deafults to this mode).

On my PC this had to be done 'silently' by hitting F7 when the Windows installation text-screen asking of you want to install "3rd party mass storage devices" comes up.

Having done this, you have a 'standard PC', and you can play around with IRQ assigments.

I finally ended having the Dio2448 with an IRQ all to itself (IRQ5).



RF

Sorry if all this has been pointing out what may be obvious to you.

But if you havn't already done so, check the IRQ assignments on your machine.

3 devices are guaranteed to cause loads of noise on a PCI soundcard's SPDIF(basically dropouts in the data stream getting to the card via PCI) if they share it's IRQ with them;

The graphics card, a modem card while it's online, and the USB controller (not a PCI device, the actual Intel chip on the MB).

RF

man that sucks. I guess I'll just have to live with the motherboard audio for mp3's and the like.

Thanks a bunch for your help though, hopefully I'll be able to return it down the line

ahh, didn't see your second post. My motherboard allows me to set the IRQ for the PCI slots, I'll certainly check that out before giving up hope.

I have windows xp, msinfo doesn't seem to be included so I can't see the current IrQ assignments, do you know of a third party program that could help?

SiSoft Sandra

I had this problem with spdif out on a DMX 6fire.

The solution was to put my primary harddrive on the motherboard controller rather than on the pci-ide add-on card I had.

I now have a Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 8mb disk on a ATA33 interface, and things are much smoother than when it was on the ATA100 card...

HI again Moncherou,

I've stayed with Win2000 for the past couple of years, I didn't realize M$ had made XP so difficult to tune.

As you've discovered, with most 'dumb' media players you're stuck with wavout or similar - this means your M-Audio is simply passing the PCM data coming down the PCI bus straight out thru it's SPDIF in real-time, no buffering of any kind.

Interrupts are the problem, the clicks are millisecond or microsecond pauses in the data, which is no problem for almost everything *except* what we're trying to do.

It's the reason audio pro's are very careful in the hardware they use in audio-workstations, and of course they will always always use ASIO.

After all I've done, mine still isn't perfect - every now and then I hear a solitary pop - but at least it's not like listening to a worn out LP, and the sound (LAME 320 CBR - Foobar2000) via an outboard DAC is stunning (sorry!).

One final thought - have you confirmed that your PC is definitely ACPI? Go to;

My Computer > properties > Device manager . Click the + next to "computer" right at the top.

Unfortunately, your only option may be an OS re-install as 'standard PC' if it's currently ACPI.

ciao,
RF.

PS read this

Amazing! 8mb disk? My first 386 had 120mb. :Phttp://www.williamhung.net/play.cfm?file=movies2/WilliamHung2.wmv

Maybe you don't have to reinstall WIN2k. This works for me with WinXP which has a pretty simmilar architecture.

Device manager-->"Computer"-->"ACPI-PC" ...double click it

-->Driver Tab-->Update Driver-->Show all drivers ...there choose "Standard PC"

The automatic shoutdown will probably not work anymore and some drivers might be reinstalled. Hope this helps.

This is only related to crackling due to bad IRQ sharing. It will not fix anything related to SPDIF or ASIO.

How about installing otachan's asio output plugin for winamp?

the asio dll can be found here:

http://www3.cypress.ne.jp/otachan/out_asio(dll).html

8MB cache

To enable ASIO over SPDIF with the Delta you'll need to switch the channels in the ASIO plugin configuration (I guess 2 is ok)

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Rockfan: that was a great article, thanks.

I didn't realize that plugins exist for winamp, I will certainly try that before tweaking IRQ or windows. I'll try that when I get home tonite and post the results.

Enjoy yer day.

Just to let you guys know, the ASIO plugin that WizKid suggested works great. The plugin has a "gapless" check box. When checked all the apparent pops and crackles dissapear. The plugin does not allow me to select which output I want to go through on the 2496, just that I want to use the Maudio ASIO driver. Lucky for me the 2496 has a digital mixer on board allowing me to route inputs to any of its outputs.

Problem solved, I sincerely thank you all for your help.

Does anyone know if there is an effective ASIO driver from Foobar, usable with the same M-Audio 2496?

-Reardon

you might try here: http://www3.cypress.ne.jp/otachan/foo_output_asio(dll).html

Try the builtin winmsd

Spooky! I just posted on the FB2K forum asking about ASIO for this player.

That really would complete my setup.

I'll go and check out the link Patsoe provided.

RF