of audio playback (16 bit CD rip with seldom modulation to full scale), which I tried in VLC and foobar with various audio driver options.
I was curious what's going on with VLC and its audio playback compared to others, so I just checked its latest version 3.0.6. If you would use foobar with before mentioned "direct" modes, then APO filters won't be applied, so you'd need to use built-in VST hosting in foobar.ītw.
So that can be option for overal correction for generic Windows applications. In general, foobar2000 is much more advanced and capable audio player than VLC, if you set it right.ĪPO filters mentioned by will work globally in Shared or DirectSound modes. With other interfaces, you should check WASAPI exclusive (that's a different thing than shared mode mentioned earlier) output component.įoobar2000: Components Repository - WASAPI output support
That's the preferred way to use such interfaces and foobar will behave basically like a DAW. If you have some better audio interface with native ASIO support (not generic ASIO4ALL wrapper), you should get particular component.įoobar2000: Components Repository - ASIO support Also it automatically switches interface working sample rate according to played file or filters in foobar (you can for instance upsample there). That's what most people would do, when they would like to transport unaltered audio directly to audio interface. So it skips any processing or sample manipulation at operating system level. Sometimes its also called bit-perfect transfer to audio interface and it's ultimate goal for any serious playback.
However you can download and add other addons (called foobar components), which can allow you to access your audio interface in more direct way.
So for example, when particular audio interface has some kind of built-in software enhancements (built-in audio interfaces commonly has enabled various crystalizers, EQs, notebook interfaces has processing for small speakers etc.), then sound from VLC will be affected by that.Īlso, when interface has set different working samplerate (you can check it at Windows audio control panel) than file you're playing, output from VLC gets resampled in Windows.įoobar without any further addons uses DirectSound, which has basically the same characteristics like previously mentioned WASAPI shared mode. Such access mode goes though all common Windows audio processing steps. With its default (automatic) audio output module, the audio goes through WASAPI in shared mode, which is essentially the same way like web browser or say Spotify standalone application. VLC at Windows uses basically most standard method to access the interface driver. Sometimes the devil is the detail and although you don't necessarily set any intentional processing in player itself, there could be a difference in a way, it access your audio interface. If you feel something like that is happening, it's just a hint to find out, what's really going on there. an audio player, when properly set, doesn't change or add any details nor it compress or so. It's more accurate, less compressed and has more details.That's just nonsense. You may check this yourself on your high-quality monitors. VLC sounds way better than both Winamp and foobar.