HiFace and ASIO

Hugo

To date, the very best musical results that I've had from PC based audio have been via an old HP laptop, running XP, Foobar and ASIO to a HiFace USB converter.  The trouble now is that the current HiFace XP driver, for both the HiFace and HiFace EVO, does not seem to support plain ASIO, which is odd.  I can get Foobar to work with Asio4All, but that has a peculiar effect on the sound which I can't quite identify, but which I certainly do not like (Asio4All reports that it outputs 32bits, so maybe that's the reason). 

So, does anyone know (Keith perhaps?) if there's a reason why ASIO support for the HiFace interfaces in XP systems no longer works? 

In the meantime, satisfactory results are forthcoming from my little MSI Wind Netbook and the HiFace Evo, running Win7, which of course has WASAPI by default, so Foobar does work better as a result.  Even better, though, is J River Media Center in both sound quality and usability terms.   The same Netbook was previously a notably poor source when used with the ordinary USB stick HiFace, so I'm presuming that the Evo's better power supply arrangements have paid dividends and minimised the effects of USB power interference.  I should add that I'm using a Paul Hynes Design SR3 PSU to power the Evo.  I'm going to have to look into Network Attached Storage devices, which fills me with dread as I have never, ever, managed to get any network device to function on any computer.

So, a mixed bag, but still promising.  I do want to get back to ordinary ASIO playback with the HiFace, so if anyone has any wisdom to impart on that subject, I'd be grateful.

Docfoster

Can't help I'm afraid Hugo. My project for this year is to get up to speed with all of this stuff!
I can confirm that your laptop with thingamibobs (when working) sounds splendid!
Ben

Jim

Hugo

What service pack are you using on XP?

Hugo

Service Pack 3.  As far as I can tell, the ASIO problem only arose with the new HiFace 1.03 drivers, on the same XP SP3 machine.

uglymusic

Can you go back to your old HiFace driver?

Jim

Never tried the Hiface but I do know that SP3 buggered lots of stuff up.  But as Dave says can you use the older drivers?

coops

Hugo Hi, I don't but I can look into it, we usually recommend Foobar's Kernel Streaming app, available from the 'components' page at the top of the Foobar home page.
XP isn't bit perfect, so I would use something, to bypass the OS's sound core.
Keith.

Hugo

Thanks Keith.  I have tried Foobar's Kernel streaming option, but it quite plainly does not sound as good as it did with ASIO.  I would like to understand what's going on here, but at least I'm getting good musical results from J River Media Center and the Evo.

coops

Hugo ASIO and Kernel Streaming both do the same job ,bypassing the sound kernel , can you try Windows 7 which is bit perfect , Wasapi is meant to be good!
Keith.

Hugo

I am currently getting best results for now from Win7 and WASAPI, but those results still fall far behind what XP and ASIO managed.  I can't believe that ASIO and Kernel Streaming are the same thing because there is such a gulf between them in terms of sound quality and musical satisfaction.  If I compare Win7 WASAPI with Kernel streaming (in Foobar and J River) there is a considerable difference too, with Kernel Streaming the poor relation by some margin.  I wish to persevere with ASIO because my old HP laptop running XP is the only machine that has really tugged at my musical heartstrings in the way that only analogue has done so far.  Ben will attest to how good it was sounding at the London Bake-Off Show (that was before updated drivers etc apparently got rid of ASIO).

jkeny

Try Win 7 Service Pack 1

Hugo

Try Win 7 Service Pack 1

That's what I have on the netbook, but that computer (even fed with a good linear PSU) simply does not sound as good as the other laptop running XP and ASIO.  I'm still waiting for a response from M2Tech regarding ASIO support in the latest HiFace driver.