[Music] ASIO Output Support

[Isosceles]

Please can you add support for an ASIO audio output device?

As a owner of a separate headphone DAC + Amp, I get much better quality music when I'm using the bit-perfect ASIO output rather than DirectSound, which changes the audio bitstream before it reaches the DAC. ASIO output would be a great compliment to the Spotify high-quality streaming.

About ASIO4All : http://www.head-fi.org/t/221237/asio4all-explanation

Thanks!

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My Audio equipment : Schiit Bifrost + Asgard, Beyerdynamic DT 250 headphones

[Isosceles]

Updated on 2018-10-31

Hey folks,



Thanks for coming to the Community, and adding your vote to this idea.

We're keeping this idea set to 'Not Right Now', as this isn't something we have any immediate plans to implement. We appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

Rest assured that if we do have any new information to share, we'll check back in here with a new status.



Thanks.

[JusHappyMusic]

i got a feedback from the developer of Virtual Audio Cable and also continued in the meantime my own investigation. Basically neither "work around" be it VAC or JRiver is perfect. Both circumvent the Mixer, yes but none of them can offer WASAPI exclusive. Because of that a conversion always happens. Weather it is audible is another question.

Both options do offer a wast improvement but neither is "bit perfect" regarding passing the entire Spotify Stream to the DAC.

You can check the module diagram for yourself and you will understand why : http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/KB/WASAPI.htm

here also the answer from Eugene (VAC Developer):

Goal is to play Spotify Audio on a Win10 PC without any sound
degredation of the Windows Sound System, Audio Mixer or anything    
else that would harm the sound as its delivered. A bit perfect,    
unaltered stream should be submitted from the PC to the DAC.

VAC itself cannot guarantee bit perfect mode for the entire audio
chain. Only Virtual Cable streams are guaranteed to be unaltered if no
format conversion and volume control are performed.

So if Spotify can use Kernel Streaming or WASAPI/Exclusive, you
definitely can achieve you goal.

so i raised the total buffer ms in Audio repeater from 20 to 50
until there were no new buffer overflows.

Even if there are no buffer problems with Virtual Cables, there could
be problems within Windows Audio Subsystem. VAC cannot detect such
issues.

in the Cable 1 information overview i see the Capture and
Renderer have a different number of frames transmitted and a    
different duration. If i basically just capture pass through the    
spotify sounds shouldnt it have the exact same size if its bit perfect ?

If two streams are created virtually at the same time, time/frame
counters should be almost equal. But VAC client (an application or
Windows Audio Subsystem) could create a stream before starting actual
data sending/receiving. I see current rendering stream is paused;
there might be additional pauses in the past.

Is it possible to     set the cable in exclusive mode to basically only
allow Spotify to     play and no further sounds to be shared in. (no
other pins to be     used i guess).

Shared/exclusive modes are modes of Windows Audio Engine, not of VAC
driver. Cables cannot be set to these modes, respectively.

How do i set exclusive mode in that case?

Only a WASAPI client (an application) can choose between
shared/exclusive modes. A driver cannot control application's
behavior.

Does it has any sound degredation if i dont set it to exclusive
mode?

Virtually yes, because in shared mode all samples are converted into
32-bit float and then back to PCM. But in most cases it is not
audible.

would you recommend any different settings for this simple
purpose of just listening bit-perfect-streams from a streaming music
provider that has no ASIO or WASAPI implementation in their own client ?

There are no specific VAC settings for such condition because all
shared mode streams go through a format convertor, and VAC cannot
alter Windows Audio Subsystem behavior.

so the conclusion is:

Please Spotify Team finally implement ASIO / WASAPI Exclusive mode !

[noobzilla]

BUMP on this. I use external DAC and could easily notice difference between ASIO/WASAPI and DirectSound. I have been using Fidelify until about a year ago when I switched to Tidal because Fidelify has just been too buggy. 

[noudvspall]

 Please make this a thing!!! I would love ASIO support!

[KristoPL]

Really 5 years have passed and this is still not implemented, looks like Spotify team doesn't give a fvck about it.

[Janochi]

I use fidelity UI and it works well. Asio does not work at all in my computer so i use wasapi.

[KristoPL]

Tried the Fidelity and it works fine, though of course it would be better if this was a option in Spotify to use either ASIO or Wasapi.

[tmouss]

The only choice we got is to use fidelify who is not as good as the nativ spotify client to naviguate 🙂

[lorenamelang]

I've been a Qobuz subscriber for years, specifically because they allow ASIO and WASAPI output from their desktop apps. It makes a _huge_ difference in sound quality. But their new app, while it still sounds great and looks great, just doesn't work properly in so many ways. And they've completely removed the ability to subscribe to other users' playlists. I'd switch immediately if you could output to my ASIO DAC... 

[Mefis]

Please add ASIO support, we need direct Spotify-to-DAC capacity.

[rick12228]

I have Dragonfly Red and Cryus Soundkey, the latest portable DAC using power from USB with no external power supply and no battery inside. They are working very good with Apple Music and Spotify, but the interface they are using is DirectSound from Win10. I think the latest Win10 should have fixed some of the audio routing. Seems to me newer DAC and new Win10 updates do not need to use ASIO or WASAPI for better sound. DirectSound can be the native support for Spotify and Apple Music too.