ASIO or Kernel Streaming volume control through Roadrunner

cougarz · 02-07-2007, 05:11 PM

Hello
I have an audiophile oriented carpc with an external firewire professional soundcard (RME fireface 400). My goal is achieve the best result in audio performance but have a good and intuitive frontend too. I liked Roadrunner but i noticed that the volume control pass trough windows kmixer. I don't want to use kmixer (very poor audio quality and resampling) so i installed Kernel streaming and Asio plugins in winamp. Both work good but i can't control the volume. Is it possible o set hotkeys and/or volume slider in order to control directly the winamp volume jumping the w_xp kmixer?
Thanks
Paolo

turbocad6 · 02-08-2007, 05:05 PM

I'm watching here for any input on this too, but I've heard mention that ideally volume control should be after the dac.... don't know how practical that is though...

RedGTiVR6 · 02-08-2007, 05:36 PM

ideally, volume control should be done in the analogue relm...

of course, I'm not real sure how to go about controlling volume on multiple outputs at the same time in the analogue relm...:|

cougarz · 02-08-2007, 06:20 PM

Ok..really audiophile systems has an analog preamplifier after the dac, maybe valve oriented. Anyway a very good digital volume can do a good job and has less issues in car enviroment. I have a 1000$ soundcard famous to be a good quality sound board. At this moment i will try to control volume by ASIO or KS. What is bad is Kmixer..very bad and stupid way to destroy pc quality sound. No suggestion for control winamp volume directly from roadrunner?

cougarz · 02-08-2007, 06:26 PM

I think best results can be accomplished using home derived external stereo dacs through I2S protocol, then followed by analog valve state hi-gain preamplifier and bypassing amplifiers preamplification (gain) using instead passive fixed oxide resistors to match volume levels. The problem is:
-3 DIY audiophile dacs may cost 700-1000$ each
-1 6-8 channel valve preamplifier DIY may cost 1000$
-a lot of problems with power supply, volume control (motorised?), quality 6 ch Alps potentiometers (expensive!)
-Biggest problem: drivers and digital soundboard with multiple I2S stereo outputs. I seached but i can't find anything. All Pro-audio boards has ADAT optical output while DIY home derived dacs accept mainly I2s stereo input. Avoid S/PDIF, it's not the best protocol to carry digital signal.

JasonWW · 02-10-2007, 02:08 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by RedGTiVR6

of course, I'm not real sure how to go about controlling volume on multiple outputs at the same time in the analogue relm...:|

Audio Control used to have a Master Volume Controller for 6 in/outputs.
http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?...EAAEEA309CEA9D

I'm no longer a fan of AudioControl, but this unit may work fine. I don't know if it's high end enough, though. BTW, this goes right before the amps.

durwood · 02-24-2007, 11:45 AM

I have one and it worked great for me except I need 8 channels. They can be linked together, but they are rather bulky. I am watching this closely too. I need a solution.

durwood · 02-24-2007, 11:58 AM

Actaully I found this for anyone who wanted to know...

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=47597

Read post 8

Quote:

A note: Winamp is relying solely on the soundcard API (waveOut, DirectSound, ASIO, KS, etc. depending on what plugin you are using) for volume control. It does not do any digital volume adjustment (except for replaygain and the preamp on the EQ)

That came straight from the Winamp Developer.

Post 12 is a good tidbit too.

tlnmp · 09-25-2007, 06:20 PM

I found a pretty simple workaround for this us VirtualAudioCable.

1. Select VAC as your default audio device in kMixer.
2. Select VAC the output device for your applications (Winamp/FFshow).
3. In Console, select VAC as the input and select ASIO soundcard as your output.

I don't think kMixer will resamples the VAC since it sounds much cleaner than normal this way.

PM me if you want a screenshot of how it looks.