Foobar2000 WASAP2 & ASIO2 output

Hello Didier, Thanks for this high-end WASAP2 & ASIO2 plugin for Foobar2000 :-) I just recently installed your plugin, because I discovered that MPC-HC had better sound quality with the Multichannel Directshow Asio Renderer than Foobar2000 with the official Asio component. Google search: multichannel directshow asio renderer (version 2.0 is free). Now with your plugin, Foobar2000 sound quality is on par with or maybe even a little bit better than MPC-HC. Sound quality is better all over the frequency spectrum compared to the official Asio component, but I especially notice an improvement of sound stage, image, low end and high end clarity and details. The stereo perspective is "big" with voices and instuments placed in 3D across stereo perspective. First, I installed the official Asio2 1.1 beta2 plugin, but was having issues with playback (Foobar2000 crashes, no automatic shift in sample rate, sample rate locked, etc.). Then I installed the Asio2 1.1 beta2 (patch #1) plugin (Asio only patch) and disabled SIMD instructions and Visualisations, as well as did a manual setup of "end point buffer sizes" in Foobar2000 advanced preferences (according to hardware specs). The Asio2 1.1 beta2 (patch #1) plugin can be found in the 2nd post of Ticket #12 (Didiers answer to Sorin): Google search: foobar2000-wasap2-output tickets 12. I have had a few Foobar2000 crashes, especially with SIMD instructions enabled, even though my processor support SSE41. But now everything is working perfectly with PCM, SACD and DVD-Audio playback. SACD sound quality is on par with a dedicated SACD player. With DVD-Audio I have had a couple of crashes when navigating to another track. But sound quality is top notch, so I can live with that. I use it with RME Fireface 800 and even though this is old hardware from 2005, it is still among the most stable pro audio sound devices. I also use Foobar2000 with the Wasapi2 plugin in an old laptop with spdif optical output to Fireface 800. Sound quality is close to Asio2, not quite as transparent, but better than the official asio/wasapi. Installation note: You get both Wasapi2 and Asio2 in the zip package download, but my experience is that you have to unzip the package, delete the foo_out_asio2.dll and zip the Wasabi2 to a new package to get it installed in Foobar2000. Maybe download should be in 2 zip packages or explained in the installation instructions? With your plugin, Foobar2000 + Fireface 800 is in league with high-end consumer and pro audio playback systems, including higher-end SACD and DVD-Audio players. I think it can be used to feed these systems, but I have no experience with this. Therefore, I strongly recommend that this plugin should be part of the official Foobar2000 components as an alternative to the official Asio plugin, so Foobar2000 users and developers get to know it and can help with feedback and development for future use cases. It would be a shame if this plugin is becoming obsolete for future Foobar2000 releases. Best regards, Rendboell

First off this works .I could not get stability with the offical component.Now i am hoping before i tweak it I could be put right on how to configure/tuning : Renderer::InitAudioClient - endpoint buffer size is not explicitely configured. keep the preferred size returned by the device - preferred endpoint buffer size = 884 Renderer::InitAudioClient - chunk size not aligned on endpoint buffer size - chunk size = 4096 , endpoint buffer size = 884 ASIOGetLatencies (input: 884, output: 1768 As is is this stable and works great ...Many thanks Need to udate has I have the issue now off system sounds messing with playback...grrrrrr though by far not as bad as the default driver or even asio4all.Its beaten me again..... if anyone could help with this( i am going to swop out the sc when my small factor case arrives) as im now back to wasapi default as tthe version from here just crashed on loading.....

Initially I had a lot of trouble to get this plugin to work, however instead of just writing a negative review I thought it would be a good idea to contact the dev, via the ticket section. He was very helpful and provided clear instructions on what I needed to do, to help him diagnose the issue with the plugin. This required patience as there were a number of reasons as to why this was not working on my setup. In the end It now work! and it is a stable as the official ASIO plugin. Was it worth going thru the hassle? Indeed it was, the sound quality is much better. Plus this made me feel part of the development of this plugin. I strongly suggest before writing a negative review, open a ticket and talk with the dev so that he can progress his development on his project.

Thank you so much! This plugin solved an issue with the sound quality that I had using the official WASAPI plugin. This one works much better!

Looked like 'another' plugin to try... made me re-listen big part of my audio collection again! My E-MU 0204 USB is a stubborn piece of gadget. I own it for over 4 years and love it for excellent DAC. But it's never ever been able to play stable ASIO/WASAPI stream other then 96kHz!! All that clicks and crackles then - silence or blue screen of death... No matter what I tried: changing computers, OS versions, usb controllers, various plugins and buffer sizes. No luck. The only option was to ALWAYS re-sample to 96kHz in foobar. This thing WASAP2 made a little(big) revolution here! For the 1st time could natively play resolution of 44, 88, 96, 192kHz. After over 20 hours of continuous random listening I may say my experience is pretty stable except for few crashes due to my settings-tweaking. Still can't make it work in 176,4 and no luck with ASIO2 so far. Over all I am happy 'cause I practically got a new DAC now thanks to Didier!!! Native 192k sounds like magic here. Probably AK4396 DAC feature! ,)