Hi everyone Im new on this forums .

my current setup:
AXP2500@3200
abit nf7-s rev2.0 w/soundstorm DDL soundcard
1gig of ram ,120gb sata and so on ..

Im using winamp for listening mp3s and for long time ive been looking for encoder/decoders that will sound right with my system .

I have a JVC RX-5022V Dolby digital ready receiver connected via spdi/f optical cable. a pair of front Peerless 350Watt RMS loudspeakers ,equipped with 12" woofer and a center ,a peerless one 150watt .

as you may know the soundstorm chip can sample at 24 bits/48khz so that's why im always using the mpg123 input plugin it gives me a richer bass experience

recently ive been looking for a good output plugin ,that's why I got in here at first place ,because Ive read interesting facts about the ASIO and its sound quality. is it better than the default directsound output plugin ? and what is the difference between the two?.


the thing is , I dont know how to configure both of the plugins properly (mpg123,asio output)
here are the screenies with the current settings:
mpg123
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/861/mpg1232zy.jpg

asio
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3872/asio3oq.jpg

nvidia soundstorm configuration
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1273/ss1ll.jpg

sorry for my english

tnx in advance ,
David.

jezz .. come on not a single reply ?

I would use the ASIO plugin with 48khz resampling and disable DD encoding, because DD is a lossy format so you loose sound quality when you use it.

btw. I'm not sure if you can set the Soundstorm to 44.1khz output, but if it's possbile then do so (of course you disable the 48khz resampling then).

I don't think you'll find a "richer bass experience," especially if your source is cd audio.

mark-tnx for the advice but by doing that(disabling DD) im losing my discrete LFE channel ,ofcourse it works well as PCM ,but not as much as it does with DD
that's my main reason for keeping the DD on,the good bass redirection to my woofers.


I have no idea how to make it sample at 44.1khz ,its forcing everything into 48khz in the hardware level I guess.



dreamliner-I never listen to audio CD's as they are ,I always rip them ,in order to listen them at 24bit


tnx for the replies.

edit: what if I do use the DD (which samples at 48khz ) and force resampling of 48khz with asio ,does it matter?
its like 48khz<>48khz?

edit: im using a dated driver for my SS.
Ive come to conclusion that it sounds the best for me (ignoring performance aspects in applications)

my current ver is 3.66 and since then there were alot of releases ,ill quote their release notes and you help me decide if there's a good reason updating them=)


ill start from 3.66 (my used one)
Realtek ALC655 codec support added
Fix for BSOD on loading DLS files
Reduced susceptibility to audio glitches under heavy system load; additional fixes for 6 channel GetPosition glitches
ASIO support for recording at sample rates other than 48kHz; lower and more predictable latency
Fixes for NOLF. The 3D minimum and maximum distance and the roll off factor were not being taken into account for air absorption. Also modified reverb gain so that the max distance was taken into account
Fix for EAX reverbs; initialized EAX reverbs to off when querying for the EAX listener interface; updated EAX property handlers to ignore invalid parameters instead of range limiting -- this matches Creative EAX behavior
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.31 version
Introduced NVMixer – replaces SoundStorm Control Panel for all audio configuration tasks. Note that NVMixer operates best when run at 1024x768 16-bit color
Introduced improved AC ’97 / Soft Audio driver – adds EQ, speaker cloning, and speaker wizard support
Introduced Speaker Wizard – incorporates all NVSwap features, ensures correct speaker setup on analog or digital speaker systems
Introduced Cinesurround – virtual 5.1 mixdown to headphones or 2 speakers
Introduced new Environments – simple, preset driven sound environments
Enhanced ASIO support and added support for AC ’97 / Soft Audio systems
Added user adjustable “rear channel creation” support – adds off, clone, reverb and delay
Added support for Realtek ALC655 codecs, Realtek ALC658 codecs, and 7.1 support for Realtek ALC850 codecs
Added support for WMV-HD audio streams and WaveFormatExtensible calls
Improved playback of mono content
Addressed audio issues in numerous games and applications
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.42 ver
same as above (Weird)

4.64 ver
Addresses issues in various games and applications


note: Enhanced ASIO support and added support for AC ’97 / Soft Audio systems
does it mean it has better asio support ?
does it affect playback performance?