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Sorry for beeing to rude. Overreacted a little bit too cause u not the only one who hardly believed this (crap) or lie or whatever ! Sorry again my friend! Next time only qualified answers 😉 peace
Hi welcome u too in this nice community of audiophiles!
Yeah very good idea indeed.
But probably impossible i would say. First of all Asus weirdly dont matter to much on customers and their wishes, needs, problems or satisfaction and so on... ( long list of bad things i can tell and show u about this company).
Second thing is that the audioprocessor on the most Xonars is manufactored from C-Media and only labeld as Asus AV100 or 200. And caused from that Asus have to rely on C-Media for new audio driver versions. Beside of all the things, Asus had could easily fixed on their own and until today never fixed anything on their own . And they were told about all the problems many times! Good for us that Carved done a great job with UNI Xonar and fixed it for us. All in all it leads me to the third problem which is that C-Media's driver development is SLOW AS HELL! And to finally to add here, when Asus is getting hands on new driver version they need their own looooong time to implement, test and release the driver. Thats simply totally mismanagment from Asus with a nice touch from C-Media. Now the question come to my mind that its the fault of Asus too to rely on C-Media but i think on the other side there are not many other possibilites. Caused from the massive lack of soundprocessors for home enviroment in the market.
I need to check out the new Creative cards with so called "4-Core Soundprocessor". But i dont think they are a revolution as i would say for only looking at the specs. Think the rest is marketing 😉
Dont know if u now maybe want to totally dismiss ur idea but if not and some more people will participate i will definitely support it and the mission! 😉 Every good thing is worth a try, but i have not much hope that this will change anything in the mind of the responsible people at Asus. Nor it will end up in any practically result (sadly). All my Asus devices are moderate good pieces of hardware but they all running with custom firmware or driver. Like my router or my soundcard. Except my motherboard which running with original bios. For me its the very better solution (new features, problems fixed and many more).
At the moment i am working on modifying (with the permission of the skin creator and owner!) the custom Asus Audio Center Skin from Xonar Essence (& STX) posted here before some time ). Maybe interesting for people which use the Asus Audio Center instead of C-Media panel and / or were really expressed from the Skin like me. I do a version for every card to fit. Mainly its just design modification but maybe some small technical modifications needed. But that should not be a problem if true. I will look into this now. and report back the next days about the status. Maybe some beta testers needed especially with different Xonar models because i only have the D2X an maybe a D2 in some days but they probably the same cards. If interested please reply short on this message and write something like: "Beta - Xonar model u can test with (i.e. Xonar HDAV). I will contact u if it finally needed. Maybe i make completely new skins later this year. Depends on the time i have. If u think u have to share smt for this project or just can help with smt (special photoshop skills or other inside knowledge) please let me know!
Thanks!!!
Be aware that this not add / changing any features of the Asus Audio Center nor the overall UNI Xonar driver. Just a nicer, slighly cleaner and more modern look / skin for AAC. I make a universal installer for all cards which with you can separately install and maybe change some settings if needed / possible like changing from Asus skin to the custom skin and backwards and checkbox for backing up old skin and things like that which regarded to the skin of AAC. Will see what can be done and make sense. When its done and Carved likes it we can eventually implement it in the UNI Xonar installer!??
I am planning on adding a skins page so that skins will can be showcased and won't be lost trhou comments. Yes, we will see about using the skin as the default one.
In my opinion you shouldn't bother with customizing skins for every Xonar, I would just let something like " Xonar Audio Card" in there for all cards.
Yeah nice idea that would be great to have a extra section for skins. And thanks for the suggestion thats a very good idea maybe i make smt like: UNI Xonar Audio Card . Thank you! I am very busy with my job at the moment but tomorow i have time and wil work on it.
Beta Testing – I would love to test it on D2X.
Ok very good thanks! This Weekend i am @ CeBIT. But next one i will have some results and smt. to test! Stay tuned i will contact u!
Great! Even better would be the abilty to load VST-plugin EQ settings to it! Can that be done!!? Thanks!
I don't think its possible.
I will look into it but i dont know @ the moment
Is it possible to have a hotkey designated to change from two "Analog Out" settings like "2 Speakers" to "FP Headphone"? I have to change between those two constantly, and it's annoying to double-click the icon every time to bring up the UI. I don't want to wear out my jacks by unplugging and plugging back in constantly.
Thanks!!
Check the Front Panel switch, it might work. You can make a shortcut for the *exe in there and assign in a keyboard shortcut as well. Note that i order for the settings to take effect the applications that use sound must be closed(winamp,..).Its not a perfect solution but it might work.
Hi Carved, the new drivers are working ok with one exception on my system. At seemingly random times the speakers will be mixed up i.e. centre channel is coming out of left surround channel a quick change to the amount of speakers of channels in sound card control panel will switch it back, but this is the first time this happened with your drivers. Is there anyway I could avoid it happening please?
Which card do you have? And how old is your card? Because there is a firmware patch that address this . Links here and here.
Thanks for the reply and advice, I thought I installed the firmware some time ago but have installed it now just to be sure. After a few hours use so far so good. Thank you again =)
I'm having an issue with both 1.41 and 1.51 and my ST in ASIO mode. Whenever I try to play first time any 88.2 or 176.4KHz files after starrting the PC I get noise instead of music. Playing a 96 or 192KHz for a second or two fixes the problem and then everything plays fine usually untill next reboot though sometimes after playing 44.1 it happens again. I also have a D2X and it doesn't suffer from this so I'm wondering if maybe my ST is faulty?? I know It is no biggie but I'd appreciate any help to get rid of it.
I'm running a fully updated W7 x86 SP1 and I have tried many ASIO compatible players with the same result so they can be ruled out as the cause. JRMC in WASPI modes works fine everytime. Any idea anyone?
Cheers
I don't understand how I haven't found these sooner. You have made me a much happier man, as now for some reason my headphones sound godlike. They finally sound exactly how I imagined they should, on top of that, I now no longer get random blue-screens whilst playing music, again, thank you!
@all Sorry for late replies.
Its a nice initiative, but in my opinion it won't work with Asus. I strongly belie this because about 9 months ago I was contacted by a higher-up person from ASUS (who oversees Xonar team as well) and in my reply I told him all about the "terrific" work Xonar team is making, all with examples and stuff. Never received a reply from him and now, 9 months later, nothing changed for the better.
Maybe I will give you all more details about the e-mails exchanged, just to see that the arrogant "great support" and not carrying attitudes come from the top.
I have a different plan in works for us striking back. Will reveal details when the time is right.
Sounds great. Will definetly look foward to whats coming, Nice news.
Sorry but I don;t understand the part with problem. Maybe you are talking about hearing 2.1 sounds on all speakers? Then check stereo upmix in the uni installer.
Xonar Essence STX in foobar2000 v1.1.10 asio mode
Unrecoverable playback error: Could not locate specified virtual ASIO device
Reconfigure ASIO in foobar. Delete previous custom channel mappings and create a new one. After this select it in the output.
Hello
Great drivers! under Win7x64 SP1 with v1.51 all pops & clicks in foobar2000 + ASIO are gone in my STX.
I have a question, FAQ section says that in order to activate headphone gain we can use Asus Audio Center since C-Media Panel does not provide this funcionality.
I've been reading Alsa Drivers for Linux source code and for the Xonars with headphone amp this is done with a digital attenuation of volume, lets say -X dB for +0dB gain (normal) and -0dB (no attenuation for the max gain +18dB 300-600ohm). They put volume value with two calls per channel to OUTB, one with 16 an 17 as data (PCM1792 control registers for digital attenuation) and a second call with channel's volumne data (255 for no attenuation).
Do you know how it is done in Windows drivers? Digital attenuation.. or GPIO ports of OxygenHD with a 3 step digital potentiometer (I think that I've not seen a device like this on my STX's PCB, but in Alsa Driver's OxygenHD's GPIO 6 is unused)...
With C-Media panel v1.51 it seems that +18dB gain is not set by default (gain for 300-600Ohm headphone), it is not louder at 50% master vol. than original ASUS drivers and 0dB headphone gain. So, if you have not tweaked C-media drivers to do headphone gain stuff (no "-X dB" value to volume by default)... Does it mean that headphone gain is not done with digital attenuation in Windows?
Thanks in advance and congratulations for your great job!
Hello & thanks!
I don't know how its done in the Windows drivers, I'm not that much into technical stuff.
Audio control panel (C-Media or Asus) writes/changes a setting in the registry and loads them in the audio drivers, and then the audio driver dictates the changes to the audio chip .
The drivers are the same, only the audio control panel is different.Based on the info you told me, my guess would be that Asus Audio center when detects an Xonar with headphone amp, automatically sets the option for headphone gain to +18db in the registry and loads it into the driver.
Can you tell me if you launch Xonar Audio Center when installing C-Media Panel, sets the volume to what it previously ?
How is the volume when installing the Uni Xonar drivers with "Normal" option?
If you have time, send me an email with 2 registry exports (guide in the FAQ & troubleshooting guide) one with normal driver and one with C-media one.
Hello
First of all I should have check registry, I've read FAQ but I forget it.
With CMedia Panel version v1.51, STX, 48KHz, master vol 50%, headphone out and +12dB here are the settings
http://pastebin.com/GbWeGUK2
(it is a public "notepad" online)
Unixonar CMediaPanel v1.51 is running without any ASIO issues, so I prefer keep this version without uninstall/reinstall "Normal version".
As I said before I should have check registry at forst place. This key:
"HpImpedanceModeRear"=hex:01,00,00,00
(+12dB gain, hex:00 for +0dB, hex:02 for +18dB)
It looks very very similar to Linux ALSA implementation. They keep gain in an ALSA struct with values 0, 1, 2 (for +0dB, +12dB and +18dB) for "getProperty" purpouses.
When user changes headphone gain, this value (previously changed) acts like an index to a predefined array with actual gains (negative):
(alsa-driver-1.0.25.tar.bz2alsa-driver-1.0.25alsa-kernelpcioxygenxonar_pcm179x.c)
********************************
static int st_hp_volume_offset_put(struct snd_kcontrol *ctl,
struct snd_ctl_elem_value *value)
{
static const s8 offsets[] = { 2*-18, 2*-6, 0 };
struct oxygen *chip = ctl->private_data;
struct xonar_pcm179x *data = chip->model_data;
s8 offset;
int changed;
if (value->value.enumerated.item[0] > 2)
return -EINVAL;
offset = offsets[value->value.enumerated.item[0]];
mutex_lock(&chip->mutex);
changed = offset != data->hp_gain_offset;
if (changed) {
data->hp_gain_offset = offset;
update_pcm1796_volume(chip);
}
mutex_unlock(&chip->mutex);
return changed;
}
********************************
Texas Instruments 179x DACs uses a byte value for attenuation/master vol, -0.5dB(255 - value), that's where "multiply by two" comes from. This negative offset is added to actual unsigned char master volume.
About my first guess: Looking at Winxp x86 ".sys" driver with disassembly (I am not familiar with x64 assembly) is too difficult 🙁 but there is a string value with GPIO6 related to SPDIF IN (so my guess was wrong), and registry keys names like "HpImpedanceModeRear", etc. It's easy to track when this strings with registry key names are used, but afer a call to portcls.sys, to a function to retrieve/create a registry key I get lost. Later function calls use registry values like "call eax" or "call [basevalue + eax*4]". I didn't manage to find where thery were pointing. There is a table of funcions which are called indexed (the "eax*4" stuff). A few of them after testing a value push to the stack DWORD 00000011h or 00000010h (16 and 17, volumen regs in PCM179x) depending of test flags and then do the same stuff, so I think they are related to volume ops but I didin't manage to track anything else :(.
Claro Halo sound card (Oxygen-HD like ours) use a physical jumper on the card to select gain (HIGH or LOW). So all seems to point to digital attenuation for Xonars an Auzentechs. I do not know what choice is the "measurable" less noisy way (because Claro Halo users may need to lower their digital master volume too)...
Sounds interesting... have to look into it.
Any comment about comparisons with 1.52 driver versus older 1.41?
@sam
I've tried v1.50 Experimental build 1 as it's the same as v1.52 (driver related) and it seemed that it had a bit less clarity in comparison with v1.41, but that just might be placebo!:P
Gonna check 1.52 and report later on...
No need to test 1.52 as the driver files are the same as 1.50.
Also found 1.52 less clear with more forward sound, more bassy and there are no more crispy highs BUT with greater imaging. When I switched back to 1.41 everything changed back to my favourite crispy sound that I love.
BTW Absolute no problems with any version of the driver 1.41, 1.52 everything works fantastic... no signature errors, no upmixing, no more asio problems (I don't use this output method but I was curious if it actually works). The only problem that really piss me off is bass redirection with 24/96 files. No output on sub even when my redirection button is turned on.
Is there anyone with xonar d2x who can actually redirect bass on this higher resolution files?
My goal is to get proper 2.1 sound like with redbook 16/44.1 format which works ok. I'm using latest version of foobar with wasapi output method on win 7 professional 32bit. I forgot to mention that spectrum analyzer also stops showing any visualization during hi-rez files playback. Pretty annoying. Is there anyone who can help with this last issue? Many thanks for help.
you may want to try it with http://shark007.net codec pack using a dshow compatible player, foobar can be querky, its part of why I stopped using it.
aimp3 is what i use now http://www.aimp2.us/aimp3-download.php is a good stand alone audio player.
if you can find tcmp(the core media player) on a site like free-codecs it will fore sure use system codecs, this should lead to better quality output as well.
just make sure to check the ffdshow audio settings (easy to get to using sharks control panel)
also mediaplayer classic home cinema can be found on sharks page and it works very well for both video and audio 🙂
I still dont get why people would run windows 7 32bit in this day and age tho.....
I use winamp with wumpus openal output for quad speaker output. get ffdshow/mpc hc from http://xvidvideo.ru
I find sharks pack works better for allaround viewing/listening then just ffdshow and mpc hc do, but both work better then most other codec packs of players build in codecs.
also note, last I checked xvidvideo's builds wherent the latest, where shark updates his packs each time ffdshow or other components update, and if you have a problem, you can just post on his forums and hes VERY quick to offer help 🙂 (far better then cccp or *shudders* klite...
What "redirect button" for 2ch->2.1 are you talking about? CMedia/Asus "Flex Bass" or a crossover in foobar2k?
If you are talking about "Flex Bass" I think that CMedia drivers (at least official drivers from Asus do that) turn off ALL DSP effects for >=96KHz. Asus said that it's to preserve "high res. sound quality" but I think they (CMedia, I presume) were worried about potential performance issues on less powerful CPUs, so they disabled all DSPs for high sample rates.
Does subwoofer work if you set 48KHz sample rate?
If you use CMedia Crossover, there is a foobar2000 component to do this job: http://xover.sourceforge.net/
I don't know its quality (my STX has only 2ch).
Thanks for all your replies. I appreciate it.
@Azure Sky
Sorry I don't want to use any other player except foobar (no other is close and yes I try them a lot)
I still dont get why people would run windows 7 32bit in this day and age tho…..
Because not all users have super new high performance setups like yours...my pc is pretty old something about 5 years and I am using it only for browsing, some older games and music. 64 bit system is much more ''hungry'' for ram and as I said my pc is pretty old piece of crap with only 1.5 gb of ram. 🙂
@AzureSky
Hm I just want to redirect low frequencies to sub with no additional software installed. But thanks for the tip.
@Reira
Finally, your reply give me final answer. If it's true than I will be not able to redirect anything above 44.1KHz through Flex Bass with my sound card driver. Or is there any way how to mod this ?
Does subwoofer work if you set 48KHz sample rate?
No. Anything above is not working at all.
Thanks again to everybody who tried to help.