to start for the last year I have been listening through two systems via iTunes / ALAC combination. In my computer room I have some focal speakers/sub that are fed through a e-mu 0404 usb DAC and a trends t-amp. My main living room system and kitchen systems are streamed through squeezeboxs.

I am by no means an Apple freak, but the better half and I have both become acustom to iTunes and enjoy the using the ALAC format in our portable player's as well, and everything has been smooth and enjoyable ripping and playing with dB and iTunes.

Then my audiophile friend stopped by last week and said "your not getting CD quality to your speakers using iTunes and Window's" and explained that iTunes will always run first through Window's XP kmixer, which resamples my music to 48Khz. My main purpose in switching to digital audio is the flexability and convenience, but my one requirement was I wanted the same quality as playing from a decent CD player. I thought I was good using a usb DAC and streaming via a squeezebox as the DAC's are good.

So after some research, I downloaded Foobar and played some ALAC files w/the Kearnal streaming enabled. To be honest, I couldn't really tell a difference. I "think" some of the tracks had a bit more depth, but in reality it was probably in my mind.

Does anyone have any input or personal experience in switching from iTunes to a program that doesn't utilize the kmixer? Is it worth giving up iTunes? Am I missing anything technical here or off-base?

still looking for answer's on this

I am unable to find solid evidence that playing ALAC files in iTunes by itself or through the slimserver uses the kmixer and resamples? And if it does, will it really matter switching to Foobar & kearnal streaming?

Greets.

Since noone has ventured into this potential minefield I thought Id take a gander. My opinion: Kick your "audiophile" friend to the curb. Well, not really, but dont let him ruin your listening experience. You will not hear any audible difference using foobar or any other software musicplayer out there. The only issue using a PC with a lossless compressed audiofile is the noise coming from the computer itself. (As long as the file is properly ripped and gained if necessary). If you were content with the sound before your friend made your audio-listening life miserable, there is no reason to change it. If you are in doubt, do an ABX test using a CD player and your computer equipment.

I am sure you can find a lot of information on both the mixer in windows and on mac's on the forum, as well as a lot of details on DAC's and the use of computers as a form of audioplayback that will satisfy the most technically oriented people around.

Just my 2 cents.

By the way, to my knowledge your Squeezebox has an internal ALAC decoder... so Slimserver is merely passing the file to the box unaltered.

Yes, you can search for the other "issue"... but in general, if you can't tell the difference, who cares?

thats the thing, I have heard both yes's and no's on it? I am not sure where in the process the kmixer kicks in and does it's stuff?

Stereophile has this article that appears to indicate that when playing iTunes 7.5, it does go through the kmixer, but there is some sort of work around. Anyone know what they are talking about?

The Stereophile fix is to use KernelStreaming (or ASIO) output if you are using a program that supports selecting the output device and format. iTunes does not allow this, however, so this approach will not work for you.

Vista does indeed have better audio support than XP. Whether or not the difference is audible on your particular system is something only you can determine.