Which Audio Software and Drivers ?

Super-Spy

Super-Spy

Super-Spy

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Hi all,

I have a pair of Adam ARTist 3 speakers which I hook up to my Alienware 17x laptop that has a built-in Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di soundcard.

The main purpose is to play music in stereo and I was wondering what the best audio software and drivers would be to get the best sound out of the hardware.

The music will be a combination of high bit rate MP3, streaming from Deezer and lossless FLAC files.

The speakers are studio monitors so have their own built-in amplification with a choice of input options ranging from the standard 3.5mm audio jack, RCA, XLR and also a USB input that feeds through a built-in DAC.

I am assuming that the best option would be connecting via USB and using the speaker's built-in DAC with the right software on the laptop.

I am sure the DAC is not as good as more expensive external DAC options but would prefer to use the built-in DAC and not spend more money.

Any advice ?
 
Thanks for the JRiver recommendation, I will google it.

Any particular drivers ?

I don't know much about it but have seen various mentions of ASIO drivers ?
Are these relevant ?
 
OK, just googled JRiver and it appears to be media centre software.

Isn't this a little heavy ?
I was thinking of software for high quality audio along the lines of Winamp or such like ?
 
I use MusicBee as my main audio player.

The default layout is better than Foobar (another very good option if you're willing to fiddle) and it does everything pretty well.
 
^+1

Another vote for MusicBee.

I went through Foobar, Winamp, MediaMonkey, etc. over the years but finally landed on MusicBee. It is highly configurable and has a good range of skins to download so that you can get it exactly how you like it. It supports all of the major formats as standard, burns and rips CDs and has built in support for WASAPI.
 
If you're using the audio output from the laptop, then if you are getting no issues with the Creative drivers, I'd stick with them.

Whilst there are modified drivers for Asus and Creative cards, I'm not sure if they extend to Creative sound chips used on motherboards and in laptops. Besides, they (modified drivers) are really intended to help where people may have issues with the official drivers. Some people have claimed that modified drivers do sound better, but that is nonsense. That's just a placebo brought about by the users dislike for Creative's or Asus' original drivers. If they work fine, then no reason to bother with modified.

WASAPI is used if you want an unmodified bit-stream between the software and the sound device. When using WASAPI though, only the software being used has direct access to the sound device. If you are using a media player and using WASAPI, anything else playing audio, will not be heard.

As for whether to use the Core3Di or USB and use the DAC in the Adam speakers. Personally, I'd probably use USB to the speakers. Try both though, see if you can hear any difference. If not, use whichever you prefer.
 
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