I've been listening to music out of the computer for about ten years. About three years ago I started ripping to wave files instead of mp3's. Recently I seriously tried using foobar and media Monkey, but neither of them provided a very significant difference in sound from WMP with kmixer disabled (To disable kmixer I followed these directions:
http://extra.benchmarkmedia.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_XP_Audio_Playback_-_Setup_Guide). Because I have made dozens of my own playlists that I listen to more than "cd's", I stuck with WMP; Foobar won't read WMP/Import WMP playlists and I couldn't get Media Monkey to work, though I didn't try very hard.
Today I purchased xxhighend and have had my world rocked. The 93 bucks was very well spent!
But, because I am not very knowledgeable about computers and have only recently learned about and obtained an external soundcard and (used) dac, I am a bit overwhelmed trying to understand what the best settings should be for my system.
Though i have read through the various threads for several hours today, and I do understand that personal preference is the final answer, I'm afraid I still have some pretty basic questions:
1. My system is as follows: Windows XP to M-Audio Audiophile USB scoundcard to MSB Gold Link Dac via spdif to a vintage tube integrated amp. The DAC allows for upsampling to `132khz, which can be turned on and off. It is currently set to 96khz.(Though it's clear that Peter doesn't prefer upsampling, I find the sound with xxhighend substantially smoother, musical and better overall with upsampling turned on. Maybe my ears are just not that educated.) I was listening to a classical guitar piece and turned the right "green" digital volume (up or down?) from v-138 to v-6 (going one further at either end turns the left control from black to red) and was stunned at the clarity at v-6! Thought the guitar was in the room. Could someone explain this to me? I thought that you always set the digital volume to 100% in the playback software? Is there a better setting for the volume control then v-6 for my setup?
2. Is there any way xxhighend will read WMP playlists?
I have a LOT more questions but I'll try asking them one at a time and see what happens. Thanks in advance for any/all replies. Again, I really can't get over the jump in the sound quality of my system. Thanks!