Xonar DX Q'

96kHz across the board (unless you are specifically wanting to work in a DAW with samples @ other sample rates) in which case 44.1kHz might be more suitable depending on the hardware you are using.

Since Vista, Windows has this annoying niggle whereby a lot of soundcards/audio interfaces do not sync to the sample rate set in the sound preferences on the device. I am not enough of a programmer to be able to tell you how or why but at the end of the day even if your soundcard is set to 96kHz/24-bit you might find that windows is running all of its sounds at 44.1kHz/16-bit. This confused the life out of me when I first loaded up 7 as I found all my games/apps/general windows sounds to have a nasty amount of compression on them and I couldn't work out for the life of me why?!

In the end, I discovered that Microsoft rewrote the way Windows interacts with soundcards (something about off loading them from the kernel to try to prevent BSODs?) resulting in end users having to set their sample rates independently to match up their sample rates and bit depth or else face audio degradation. Don't just take my word for it have a look for yourself! Pull up your device driver software for the Xonar and select 96kHz. Now go to the sound preferences in the control panel of windows and right click on the default playback device. This will usually be called "speakers" if you are using stereo/2.1. Go to Properties -> Advanced and see if the sample rates match.

Also, remember that if you set your sample rate at 44.1kHz/16-bit you are effectively limiting yourself if you encounter any audio processing from an application/game that has been encoded at a higher rate. By setting a sample rate of 96kHz and a bit depth of 24-bit however, you will still run any material encoded at 'CD' quality (44.1/16bit) but have the added advantage of being 'HD' enabled, if you will, for other sources (not to mention the problem I described earlier with Winblows).
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the detailed explanation - I appreciate it.

Since the Xonar supports 192 KHz, and the properties of the default playback have 192 KHz as an option, should I set it to 192 ?
 
You can do but higher sample rates will severely stress your system more than lower ones.

You have to remember here that the majority of apps & games will be using 44.1kHz however stuff like DVDs use 48kHz and anything recorded in the last 5-10 years is probably going to have been using 96kHz for tracking but eventually bounced down to 44.1kHz for commercial release on CD.

But please have a look at the windows bug I was talking about earlier because I am intrigued to see if others experience it. If you do find a mismatch then yes set it as high as it will go (both for the Xonar and Windows) but frankly, if I find it difficult to tell between 96 and 192 then I reckon 99% of the population will to whereas, to the trained producer, 44.1 vs 96 is like the difference between SD and HD in TVs.
 
You were right - the 96 KHz in the Xonar control panel did not match Windows, which was set at 44.1. I think I will set them both to 96 KHz.
 
Bet you noticed a difference in sound quality as soon as you flipped Windows up to the right rate correct?

Annoying that it doesn't sync - the first thing I noticed when I booted Vista after migrating from XP was the compressed audio. I almost bricked myself...
 
I'm interested in this also.

I have my Xonar D2 set at 96. Now from that i use an optical cable into a DAC, which is a 24bit DAC supporting up at 96khz. From this DAC i run a pair of HD650 headphones.

When i set windows to anything other than 16bit 44.1khz, the bars on my Xonar control panel do not move, but the sound still plays.

Should i set windows to 24bit 96khz, and not worry about it?
 
I would yes - remember 7 hasn't been out that long. As the drivers mature I'm sure in the future you will see the meters move on the driver panel.

Report back and let us know if you hear any difference!

Even A/Bing the windows sample rates is a good thing to do. See if YOU notice a bump in quality (I certainly know that I do!).
 
hughythomas said:
Since Vista, Windows has this annoying niggle whereby a lot of soundcards/audio interfaces do not sync to the sample rate set in the sound preferences on the device.
.
Click to expand...

Sorry to quote myself but yes Vista/7 are the OSs affected by this. Set your sample rate to say 96kHz (you honestly don't need any higher and this is coming from a professional musician) in the Xonar driver and then go to the sound properties in Vista for the device.

Also have your favourite media player open (lets say for the sake of argument Winamp).

Now, A/B a media file (lossless if possible) to see if you can hear difference between setting 44.1kHz / 16-bit and 96kHz / 24-bit whilst listening to the same track under each.

Report back. This is purely for my curiosity!
 
2, music only uses 2, unless it has been specifically recorded with 5.1. Doesn't the choice of channels only apply to the analogue out though?
 
I have some logitech z-2300 and have noticed that if i set it to use 2 channels for music the subwoofer wont be working to its full potential.
There is a huge difference in bass if i switch to 4 channel or higher so now i just keep it on 8 instead.
 
hughythomas said:
96kHz across the board (unless you are specifically wanting to work in a DAW with samples @ other sample rates) in which case 44.1kHz might be more suitable depending on the hardware you are using.

Since Vista, Windows has this annoying niggle whereby a lot of soundcards/audio interfaces do not sync to the sample rate set in the sound preferences on the device. I am not enough of a programmer to be able to tell you how or why but at the end of the day even if your soundcard is set to 96kHz/24-bit you might find that windows is running all of its sounds at 44.1kHz/16-bit. This confused the life out of me when I first loaded up 7 as I found all my games/apps/general windows sounds to have a nasty amount of compression on them and I couldn't work out for the life of me why?!

In the end, I discovered that Microsoft rewrote the way Windows interacts with soundcards (something about off loading them from the kernel to try to prevent BSODs?) resulting in end users having to set their sample rates independently to match up their sample rates and bit depth or else face audio degradation. Don't just take my word for it have a look for yourself! Pull up your device driver software for the Xonar and select 96kHz. Now go to the sound preferences in the control panel of windows and right click on the default playback device. This will usually be called "speakers" if you are using stereo/2.1. Go to Properties -> Advanced and see if the sample rates match.

Also, remember that if you set your sample rate at 44.1kHz/16-bit you are effectively limiting yourself if you encounter any audio processing from an application/game that has been encoded at a higher rate. By setting a sample rate of 96kHz and a bit depth of 24-bit however, you will still run any material encoded at 'CD' quality (44.1/16bit) but have the added advantage of being 'HD' enabled, if you will, for other sources (not to mention the problem I described earlier with Winblows).
Click to expand...

Interseting, thanks for this, i have my Xonar set to 96khz, so after reading this, i checked out what my windows 7 was set to, and sure enough, it was set to 44khz, so i changed it to 96khz to match. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom