Ach du lieber! CAN WIN7 32-BIT SOUND AS GOOD AS 64-BIT OR WIN8?

[Gary.D.Olson]

My system is finally up & running and it just sounds really good to my ears. Probably miles between this little system and yours, but if that's my worst problem, I'm fortunate. I had serious doubts a tiny Asus netBook with Foobar2000, plugged into the world's cheapest DAC, all driven by an old Denon receiver and a sub/sat speaker system with ZERO crossover point, could sound good, but it really does.

 

My netbook boasts an Intel Atom processor incapable of running Windows 64 bit. I was just reading another thread here about AP-Linux, and someone over there mentioned Windows 7 64 bit sounds better than Windows 7 32 bit. Someone later said Windows 8 sounds better then 7. It ain't broke, & I ain't fixing it - YET. I plan to leave things the way they are for many months or longer. Still, a long-term game plan is a good thing, yes?

 

I'd be much obliged to anyone kind enough to enlighten of significant differences - if any - in sq between win7 64, win7 32, and win8.

 

Good evening to you all.

 

Gary

[Mr.C]

This doesn't answer the question directly, but I personally hear more difference between playback programs than between Windows operating systems. Now experimenting with Linux might be entirely different, but I would spend my money in other parts of my system than upgrading from Windows 7-8.

[Gary.D.Olson]

Thank you for your response. What playback software do you recommend?

 

 

 

This doesn't answer the question directly, but I personally hear more difference between playback programs than between Windows operating systems. Now experimenting with Linux might be entirely different, but I would spend my money in other parts of my system than upgrading from Windows 7-8.

[bluesman]

Hi, Gary! It's great to hear that you're up and running, and even better that you're approaching it with a reasonable attitude and a focus on the music rather than the gear. You'll have a lifelong joy this way - those who obsess wildly over everything but the music are prone to moving on to another interest after a varying period in which they're never really enjoying or happy with anything.

 

In my experience, apparent audible differences among current operating systems are largely related to concurrent processor activity. It's the other stuff using the processor that affects audio, not the OS itself. If I understand it correctly, Fidelizer shuts down all non-essential services and lets your processor focus on making music, and there are enough posts about it in CA to keep you reading for days, if you search. A more basic approach is to shut down the processes you don't need for audio. Gamers do the same thing - here's a link to a list of processes recommended for shutdown by the overclockers (and here's how to do it if you don't know). And here's an interesting web page that compares audio performance of 7 to 8.

 

Now go crank it up, pour yourself a glass of whatever you like, and groove!

[Snowmonkey]

Gary, do you have your JRMC output mode set to one of the Hardware Direct modes (ASIO, WASAPI, Kernel Streaming)? These bypass any processing by Windows, so hopefully would negate any differences in Windows 7/8, 32/64 bit.

[Gary.D.Olson]

I'll be reading everything from those three links over the weekend. It didn't make sense to me that an operating system could affect sq (assuming a reasonably modern computer) but there have already been a few paradigm shifts for me since joining this community (I'd have never guessed a DAC could operate from USB, or that cables can have a significant impact on sq). Clearly there's a lot to learn including where to draw the line between practicality & insanity. Limited budget here.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Gary

 

 

 

 

Hi, Gary! It's great to hear that you're up and running, and even better that you're approaching it with a reasonable attitude and a focus on the music rather than the gear. You'll have a lifelong joy this way - those who obsess wildly over everything but the music are prone to moving on to another interest after a varying period in which they're never really enjoying or happy with anything.

 

In my experience, apparent audible differences among current operating systems are largely related to concurrent processor activity. It's the other stuff using the processor that affects audio, not the OS itself. If I understand it correctly, Fidelizer shuts down all non-essential services and lets your processor focus on making music, and there are enough posts about it in CA to keep you reading for days, if you search. A more basic approach is to shut down the processes you don't need for audio. Gamers do the same thing - here's a link to a list of processes recommended for shutdown by the overclockers (and here's how to do it if you don't know). And here's an interesting web page that compares audio performance of 7 to 8.

 

Now go crank it up, pour yourself a glass of whatever you like, and groove!

[Gary.D.Olson]

I'm starting out using Foobar but will eventually move to JRMC. I have WASAPI enabled and have bypassed Windows processing. This netBook is 100% dedicated to this task. I did a complete reformat & OS reinstall last weekend. It's been updated and there is no additional software to add conflicts or confusion. I'll eventually add JPlay which to my understanding forces all non-essential processes to stop.

 

Thanks for the input.

 

Gary

 

 

Gary, do you have your JRMC output mode set to one of the Hardware Direct modes (ASIO, WASAPI, Kernel Streaming)? These bypass any processing by Windows, so hopefully would negate any differences in Windows 7/8, 32/64 bit.

[bluesman]

Clearly there's a lot to learn including where to draw the line between practicality & insanity.

 

And when you find out, please post it immediately - more than a few of us wander back and forth across that line regularly.......

 

[Gary.D.Olson]

Brother, when laughing at myself, there's an endless supply of material.

 

 

And when you find out, please post it immediately - more than a few of us wander back and forth across that line regularly.......

 

[spdif-usb]

I also use a netbook with an Intel Atom CPU as my dedicated (well, sort of...) playback machine and I like foobar2000 for the fact it uses very little system resources, as well as the fact it can be customized 1001 different ways. The convoluted UI of JRiver doesn't appeal to me at all, but that's just me.

 

That being said, when it comes to stuff like Fidelizer and JPlay, I am in the same camp as those who have the luxury of "not hearing a difference" despite having a very revealing system. My netbook that's hooked up to my USB DAC still uses Win 7 and my laptop that's hooked up to my USB 3.0 external harddrives (on which my music library is stored) uses Win 8 so I guess that kind of shows where I draw "the line".