High res audio player

[RudieV]

Hi there, I have been a Winamp user for as long as I can remember. I recently upgraded my stereo system with a great dac. This dac is capable of high res files, including DSD files. On the dac I can see the resolution it receives from the computer. With Winamp it only receives 44.1 kHz 1 time sampled, even if the files have a much higher resolution. Because of this I switched to Musicbee and now the dac shows the right resolution when I play the same files. It does sound better.
But, I don't like Musicbee, the lay out is not suited to my needs and not very versatile . I want to go back to Winamp. I searched the internet for ASIO drivers but they are nowhere to be found or don't work in Winamp. The other drivers I found crashed Winamp or play the files at standard 44.1 kHz.

Am I overlooking something? Are there settings I forgot about? My dac is a Denafrilps Ares II. Great dac, I can recommend it.

Thanks for your reply.

[Dr.Flay]

1) This is not the Winamp site, This is WACUP.
2) Please state which version of WACUP you are using.
3) please state which WACUP output plugins you have tried or are wanting to use.
4) What is the quality setting displayed in the playback devices windows panel for your DAC. Make sure Windows is announcing the correct settings.
5) if your DAC does not come with ASIO drivers and support, you will have to install ASIO4all or a virtual audio driver from the VoiceMeeter site.
You will still need to set the desired preferred quality in the windows own playback options.

[RudieV]

Hello Dr. Flay,

1. Sorry, I didn't know but I now installed WACUP and it looks smashing. Very nice interface and I see ASIO and WASAPI standard in the outputs. Great!
2. Version 1.0.13.5864
3. I have tried ASIO, Direct sound and WASAPI. They all play well when I feed a flax 44.100 kHz file but WACUP just does not play at all if I want to play a file of 14117 kbps, a converted DSD file to flac. Just no sound is coming out and the time indicator does not start. This happens with all 3 plugins. I would prefer to to ASIO but WASAPI is fine too.
4.  I am not sure which window in Windows you mean. My dac shows the quality of the file
5. My dac plays ASIO through Musicbee flawlessly
Hope I can stay with the new WACUP. Love the flexibility and look.

Thanks for your effort to reply.

1) This is not the Winamp site, This is WACUP.
2) Please state which version of WACUP you are using.
3) please state which WACUP output plugins you have tried or are wanting to use.
4) What is the quality setting displayed in the playback devices windows panel for your DAC. Make sure Windows is announcing the correct settings.
5) if your DAC does not come with ASIO drivers and support, you will have to install ASIO4all or a virtual audio driver from the VoiceMeeter site.
You will still need to set the desired preferred quality in the windows own playback options.

[Dr.Flay]

Sometimes WACUP doesn't swap the device immediately.
You may have to select the one you want then close the player.
It should detect it fine when loading again.

The Windows playback device settings can be accessed by right-clicking on the volume icon in the system tray (see the image).
Unless an output plugin has it's own options for setting the output quality, Winamp and Wacup ask Windows what it is currently set to (including the amount of channels available).

Have you tried this plugin ?
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Plugins/DSD-Plugin-for-Winamp.shtml

[RudieV]

Unfortunately it did not work. After setting Wacup to ASIO and shut down and restart gave the same result. I take exclusive control of the audio so adjusting the sample rate is not necessary I think. I want to avoid the WIndows mixer.
Such a shame, I really love Winamp/Wacup. Even the expensive audio players don't offer the same as Winamp.

Hope this get solved. Is there a crashdump I can send you?

[Dr.Flay]

@dro can you check that DSD plugin and see if it can be made to work.

[Mits]

Dear RudieV, I have not yet delved in the Windows 10 audio stack (and don't intend to, I'm Win7 for life), but from my long experience in Win7, unless you use ASIO or WASAPI output, Windows will get in the way and won't let you by default output anything other than 16/44 unless configured so. 24/96 is possible, even 5.1 and 7.1, Dolby 24/96 or DTS (see https://windowsreport.com/get-dts-sound-pc/) but higher-res is totally out of the question with Directsound.

IMHO it's not productive for the Wacup developers to compare Wacup performance and capabilities with that of fourth-party players like MusicBee. I can too name a dozen apps, free and paid, that can play DSD properly, but please consider that we are all here to help make Wacup come to at least the level of Winamp, when I presume it will finally get out of beta.

Therefore, please report first if what you want to is feasible with Winamp 5.666 (patched). If it's not, there are numerous known and unknown scenarios for what may be wrong in your case.

Finally, don't assume that the DAC drivers, however expensive it is, are written properly - in the audio world the norm is a patchwork of fixes upon fixes.