How to get the most out of my ASUS Xonar Essence STX

[ADay2Long]

Hey guys,

I ordered my ASUS Xonar Essence STX and a set of HD 555 and was wondering what is the best music software to use to play back my music and what format of music should I now use?

Thx!

[Jim]

Yea wouldn't mind knowing that to,something that'll increase the bit rate & quality.

[BobbyLou]

flac and winamp

[lowfat]

What OS are you running? There are differences when using Vista/7 and XP.

In Vista/7 audio can be passed directly from the software to the audio device. This will cause only sound from that software to be played. All other sounds will not be played. This is done to bypass the Vista/7 audio stack, thus avoiding any coloring of the sound be its resampling. You will need a player that can do this though. Foobar2000 w/ WASAPI plugin is what most people prefer.

Personally though I don't even bother. I don't find that the difference is all that much. I myself just use iTunes. And try to keep most of my library in lossless M4A format. I would likely use Foobar2000 if I could sync my iPods easily w/ it. And try to keep most of my library in lossless M4A format. Then for video I use MPC-HC w/ the madflac directshow filter. Keeping most of my movies in FLAC.

[Jackquelegs]

Foobar2000 with Monkeyaudio plugin

Better than winamp in every way.

Grab some FLAC, APE files

[Jim]

7 here

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Jackquelegs

Foobar2000 with Monkeyaudio plugin

Better than winamp in every way.

Grab some FLAC, APE files

ok got fbar ,got the monkey .dll in components , read the help,still don't know how to use the monkey ? thanks

[Jim]

think files sound better in fbar,using winplayer 4 ever

[Jackquelegs]

Monkey is for playing .APE files, which is a compressed file while being lossless. One of my favorites since the collections usually don't eat my HDD space for breakfast.

[lowfat]

Originally Posted by Jackquelegs

Monkey is for playing .APE files, which is a compressed file while being lossless. One of my favorites since the collections usually don't eat my HDD space for breakfast.

more compressed than FLAC or M4A?