If you’re using Windows 10 version 1703 – that’s the so-called Creator’s Update from 2017 – or later, you may not need to install special drivers. I’ve chosen this because it’s easier than some other player software to set up, works on Windows and MAC computers (and Linux as well), and can provide confirmation that the signal is going through to the DAC perfectly.
And for music playback we’ll be using the latest version of JRiver Media Center. This is seriously affordable, yet offers the kind of performance you’d expect from a unit costing ten times as much. So the notification can ring right in the middle of that aria that you had, until then, been enjoying.įor our example DAC, we’re going to use the quite remarkable Topping E30 Desktop USB DAC, pictured at the top of this page. What if your music is running at a different sampling rate to the notification? Not a problem: Windows just resamples all the audio to one fixed sample rate.
It needs to mix that notification bell or sound into your music. So, while you are playing some music, Windows might want to alert you to incoming email or some other important matter. A computer is a multipurpose device that can run many processes and programs at the same time.
While many of us use computers for high end audio, that’s not what they are designed for. Why does Windows mess with your sound?īefore we start, understand that it’s right and proper that Windows takes control over audio and sometimes plays around with it. So, let’s see how you can set up a DAC with Windows so that it gets bit-perfect sound from your computer. But are you getting the best that it can deliver? My guess is that most people using DACs on their computer are getting less than perfect sound because the sound is being processed by Windows in some way before it even gets to the DAC. You can just plug most of them into most computers and straight away you’ll get a marked improvement in sound quality. There are lots of fine DACs available for this job, priced from just a few tens of dollars up to many thousands. But a computer’s audio output is mediocre at best, so you will need to add a USB Digital to Analogue converter. It can stream high-resolution Master Quality Authenticated music from TIDAL, or ultra-high-resolution music from its own storage, or from your network storage.
A Windows computer can make a great source for high-fidelity sound.
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