Best audio enhancement?

[xtknight]

I have an Audigy 2 ZS Gamer card and Sennheiser HD457 headphones. I'm looking for a decoder or player/software that will enhance audio quality, but nothing too fake like CMSS. What do audiophiles recommend? I'm not sure what 'improve' means really, but generally I just want to have it so I can hear the whole spectrum of sound without distortion. I'll install kX drivers again if they will improve audio quality. Is there any audio calibration software like there is for video (gamma, brightness, contrast, etc)?

I have tried VLC and ffdshow, but I'm not sure which options to use for best audio quality.

Thanks!

 

[xtknight]

Bump

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Surround speakers and a sub with enough punch to flatten small animals?

- M4H

 

[NanoStuff]

What you're asking for isn't something that to any significant extent can be achieved with software. You're gonna need a better sound card and headphones.

There is one tweak that would help the Audigy2. A resampler.

http://70.85.48.68/~nutt98/Winamp/

Look in that list for the out_wave_ssrc.dll

Use that as output at 48kHz and it should help a bit.

ASIO out might be even better however, but it's a little more of a sore in terms of stability and configuration. But worth trying if spending more is not an option

 

[xtknight]

Yeah, I'm not asking for miracles with a $100 sound card and $50 headphones, I just wondered if there were any possible software improvements. Looks like there are so I'll go give that a try, thanks. I would get a huge 5.1 in a second but I'm afraid it would annoy my parents to all hell (it might flatten them too).

Is the X-Fi really worth it over the Audigy 2? What is different? More than just the crystalizer CMSS stuff? Maybe I am just not listening to high-enough bitrate stuff. I listen to Shoutcast the most, and a couple MP3s, trance and rock mostly.

 

[xtknight]

Wow, nice. I tried the out_wave_ssrc.dll resampled to 96kHz/24bits, the difference is actually stunning. :Q It makes it sound like 384kbps audio instead of muffled 128kbps. Should I limit myself to 48 kHz or is 96 any better since my Audigy (supposedly) supports that?

I did try the asio DLL. Sadly, the audio skips using the 'ASIO4ALL' driver. (The other Creative/Audigy ASIO drivers just refuse to work.) I don't do much gaming anymore, so Winamp plugins are perfectly par for the course. ssrc sounds a lot better than ASIO to me so I'll keep that.

With Shoutcast the out_wave_ssrc.dll makes the sound buffer/pause a lot. Is that fixable or is it just the nature of the beast? Reducing buffer in its options to the lowest 200 ms. doesn't seem to help.

Any idea about 'distribution': rectangular, triangular, Gaussian? Which would be better or is it just subjective?

Thanks again.

 

[NanoStuff]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Is the X-Fi really worth it over the Audigy 2?

I've not used it myself, but I would think so. It has a much better SRC and it's output quality is overall a step higher. The crystalizer is a gimmick, and CMSS is not something I'd ever use myself, but the HRTFs are something that would benefit headphone mode over Audigy2. If you don't intend to game on the card however you can get higher quality output for a similar if not lower price (ex, EMU 0404) which is yet again significantly better than the X-Fi.

And BTW that reminds me, if you have speaker options configured as headphones in either the windows or creative config panels, be sure to change that to stereo speakers.

Wow, nice. I tried the out_wave_ssrc.dll resampled to 96kHz/24bits, the difference is actually stunning. It makes it sound like 384kbps audio instead of muffled 128kbps. Should I limit myself to 48 kHz or is 96 any better since my Audigy (supposedly) supports that?

I would limit myself to 48kHz. The reason for this is that the Audigy2 DSP operates at 48kHz. A 44.1kHz source has to be upsampled to 48kHz and as per output instructions of the output plugin, it's also typically forced to downsample again to 44.1kHz. Allowing the resampler to work at 48kHz, you're effectively not resampling to 48kHz but preventing downsampling to 44.1kHz. Setting higher than 48kHz would cause a resample that would be mostly unnecessary. Some DACs however function better at higher bit-rates/sampling rates even though fundamentally you're not getting any extra information by upsampling. The Audigy2 doesn't really benefit from this. Harmonic distortion is lower yet Intermodulation distortion is higher, but there's still the disadvantage of unnecessary resampling, it's 2 against 1 really, but wouldn't hurt to try both.

With Shoutcast the out_wave_ssrc.dll makes the sound buffer/pause a lot. Is that fixable or is it just the nature of the beast? Reducing buffer in its options to the lowest 200 ms. doesn't seem to help.

Try increasing buffer length to around 10 seconds, and track-change buffer to around half a second. Otherwise just play around and you should get it.

Any idea about 'distribution': rectangular, triangular, Gaussian? Which would be better or is it just subjective?

Triangular would be best, though I believe this only applies to bit-depth changes so if you keep it at 16 that will be overlooked. You probably should keep it at 16, but then again doesn't hurt to try otherwise.

 

[NanoStuff]

Another thing you might want to look into is equalizing the 457's bass response. They're somewhat peaky, that is exaggerated bass response. Some people like it, I don't, I try to keep my bass response neutral. You can attempt to use a 60Hz 1st order filter at -10dB which should flatten response fairly well... if you don't know how I can show you, but it's a heft explanation so first you gotta let me know whether you're unhappy with bass response in the first place . You can use the Eqium Parametric EQ listed on that site, and load it up the same way as externalizer.dll as mentioned below: It's a demo however, I believe 30 day limited. The full version is pretty expensive so if you want to equalize for free you should try the Shibatch plugin for winamp.

Also, you will notice a VST Winamp Bridge file on that page. If you use this with externalizer.dll, this will give you interaural crossfeed, which is IMO essential for headphone listening.

I use AdaptX inside MuchFX with wrlite as a VST wrapper inside AdaptX to load the externalizer.dll. It's a more complicated approach but I never got around to trying the VST bridge, it should be easier if it works.

 

[xtknight]

It's like a totally different set of headphones now. The bass is bowel loosening. :Q The buffer changes completely fixed the Shoutcast problem. The results are unreal compared to what I had before. I also had installed the kX drivers but I haven't messed around with the software DSPs within them yet. Thanks. The only problem is it sounds a little harsh/intense, like the midtones are lacking and it needs to be more spatialized. I assume this is because of the resampling. Even though it wasn't my intent, games sound great too. The kX drivers must have done something.

 

[NanoStuff]

Well, the midtones are lacking altogether on the 457s, perhaps the recent changes just make this fact obvious

The next sensible step would be to upgrade the headphones. The PX100s might be a nice up from the 457s for not much more, but it's still best to save up and go further up.

But still you should try to get that externalizer.dll going, it will ease this spatiality problem of yours significantly. And once again if you EQ the 457s bass hump these midtones should be more present.

 

[xtknight]

Any advantage of using externalizer.dll over kX's 10 Band EQ DSP or Winamp's EQ?

P.S. Adjusting the 10 Band EQ definitely fixed the problem. (Lowering it at the far left and far right bass/treble bands.) It sounds best when the EQ looks like the side of a volcano. At least, for some songs.

 

[NanoStuff]

Completely different things. Winamp's EQ is worthless however, unsure about the kx EQ.