Windows 2012 R2 - Audiophile PC

[sound_cycle]

I mean surely the quality of music would not depend on OS only <snip>but most of all, the music quality is top notch when complimented with a decent DAC

I agree, for instance as elaborated here. My line of thought (shaped in part by reading here on hfv and elsewhere on the 'net and by trial on my rig) it's the DAC, and power source that matter.

ciao
gr

 

[s_sachin]

btw windows 10 media player now plays FLAC natively.

Also Groove ..

Windows 10 preview turns Xbox Music into 'Groove'

 

[sam9s]

You can read the reviews online. Please do the research.

This is not about getting audio to work.
Plain WinXP on a Pentium with Kernel Streaming gives you excellent audio.
This is the bleeding edge "state of the art" in computer audio.

Is it worth shooting for in more humble systems? Why not?
WS2012R2 is available from Microsoft free of charge for demo.

Munich 2015 - Sound Galleries Room with a Windows 10 Machine

This is a discussion on the setup before the show:
Munich High End 2015 Blog and comments


This is the Audiostream report after the show (among others)
Lampizator, HQ Player, Audiopax, Avante Garde: Digital Done Right. | AudioStream


If the OS has not made a difference in your setup. So be it.
No need to do any further work.

errrrr where on this mother earth the two articles infer that the choice of Audiophile Music PC OS should be windows.

I am not saying windows OS cannot be tuned to provide bit perfect audio, via kernal streaming, AISO or WASAPI drivers. But windows isnt the favourite choice of audiophile PC (let alone server). Using Linux over windows have other major advantages, some of the top Audiophile pre built Audio servers use linux variants (like Aurender, etc). linux can be configured to only have what one needs to play audio, and nothing else.

Sonore devices considered to be an audiophile grade devices run on prorietary linux based OS.

Other advantage is Linux is free. It also runs better on low power devices like Rasp Pi. Many other audiophile PCs/streamers are fairly wimpy in computing power and memory. That is where Linux excels. It's much easier to keep cost down with small devices like Rpi than running expensive HW for Windows (relatively). It's also easier to build a fanless server with Linux coz you can use lower power devices.

 

[Nikhil]

errrrr where on this mother earth the two articles infer that the choice of Audiophile Music PC OS should be windows.

In case you haven't noticed this thread is titled "Windows 2012 R2 - Audiophile PC".
If you feel compelled to talk about any other OS basic forum decorum suggests you start another thread on that topic.

 

[sam9s]

^^ So ...?? lol. How does thread name concludes Windows better than Linux as an audiophile PC OS. Incase you didnt notice I did say we can make an Audiophile PC using Windows but that isnt the recommended choice for OS reasons I stated above. That dude on that thread obviously choose windows as his choice and hence the thread title ..

 

[manniraj]

@sam

Neither me or Nikhil or other FMs who have commented on this thread are recommending that every audiophile PC should have a Win2012 OS running. Its just that there are reviews and comments all over the net on the feasibility of using this OS with turning off some of the unwanted stuff thereby making it a very good OS for audio purpose. Even I have used Pi with MPD for audio related purpose but dropped the idea as it was not stable as far as I am concerned and also I am a Linux noob. Hence shifted to a Win7 based fanless PC earlier but now shifted to 2012R2 version because of the tweaking that one can do. You can read an elaborate thread on this OS tweaking along with a AO script which automatically does this tweaking on the computeraudiophile.com site. Nobody is comparing this OS with Linux and then recommending one over the other. Its just that some people are happy with Windows and some are happy with Linux based flavours similar to you recommending a Unraid based DIY NAS solution and then the Synology which is a pre-built all in one solution.

 

[sam9s]

Hi Mani

Respect your opinion, I also consider myself as a Linux noob only. The difference might be I do not shy away from Terminal and I am always eager to jump and try stuff. Not sure why Rpi was not stable for you, but I have been using Rpi extensively for my audio setup, with different OS and I can say it is rock solid as far as stability goes. Initially I used it with LMS than later shifted to Pi Music BOX and then finally to Moode (though I loved Volumio and Rune as well). Before Rpi I was using Squeeze box touch, which in itself is a pretty decent audio hardware. I did not notice any difference when I shifted from SBT to Rpi (with a very modest Fiio dac). And you do not have to run a single linux command for these to install.
I still dont understand, even though windows also can be tuned to provide bit perfect audio, as an OS its far more huge. elaborate, power hog, Hardware hungry, and costly to implement..... Anyway as you said........some people are happy with Windows and some are happy with Linux based flavours...

 

[sound_cycle]

Hi,

Holy Cow ! It must be some placebo thing because I cannot believe I am typing this.

Got Win 10 last night on the music (also) PC. I'll be lying through my teeth if I said that I felt/ thought it did not sound better.

Reading on windows audio enhancements in win10, i figure they have done things to wasapi and "Microsoft claims that one can now expect near ASIO performance when using WASAPI shared mode. This is a big accomplishment since in the past WASAPI shared mode had very high latencies, close to 50 ms (similar to MME drivers). Applications like SONAR that use kernel streaming or ASIO already communicate at a lower level that bypasses the Windows audio engine, so in theory the lower latency advancements in Windows 10 will not allow for lower latencies than previous versions unless you were using the Windows audio engine."
The Cakewalk Blog

 

[jls001]

Very interesting, GR:thumbsup:

On a different issue, has anyone compared WASAPI and ASIO in the same setup? And more specifically with foobar2000 as player?