win 7 vs win 8.1 sound (science. not audiphille magic)

[1111Eugene]

Hi, I have a question ( a couple of)

does sound differs between windows 7/8/10?
In what way?
is there anywhere tests about sound comparison on different windows version?
Does ASIO driver REALLY stream audio withoug goung through any windows audio software in its routing?
If sound really differs, how to patch windows 7 to sound like win 8?
is there a way to update its factory codecs? will it help?

Thank you

[Martin Walker]

Hi, I have a question ( a couple of)

does sound differs between windows 7/8/10?
In what way?
is there anywhere tests about sound comparison on different windows version?
Does ASIO driver REALLY stream audio withoug goung through any windows audio software in its routing?
If sound really differs, how to patch windows 7 to sound like win 8?
is there a way to update its factory codecs? will it help?

Thank you

Hi 1111Eugene, and welcome to the SOS Forums!

Essentially yes, the audio from Windows 7, 8 and 10 should sound identical, especially if you're using ASIO drivers, as these do indeed provide bit-accurate audio transfer.

A close second is using WASAPI (push or event) mode drivers, which also bypass the Windows audio codecs. However, WASAPI shared mode drivers do go through some of this.

The easiest solution for the musician in my experience is to stick to ASIO drivers wherever possible.

Martin

[Eddy Deegan]

In common with all other operating systems, Windows doesn't have a 'sound', as such. In the context of digital audio, sound is what the listener hears when the digital information is reconstituted back into the analogue domain and that's handled by hardware.

As Windows is an operating system its job is primarily to service requests from the interfaces it has to the outside world (storage devices, human input devices, audio interfaces etc) and also to write data back out to them. Sound doesn't exist to it, audio is just another data stream. It relies on interfaces to feed it that data stream and it expects them to receive any it gives back also.

You could measure differences in the efficiency of that process in various flavours of Windows but this will often be somewhat down to the skill of the people who created the driver(s) for the interfaces as well.

WIth the same data, you will get far more variation in sound on different headphones and speakers than you will in different versions of Windows, not to mention any processing done on that digital audio within any software such as a DAW or codecs.

[Watchmaker]

...the part of your quest related to sound IS magic, the machine activity, including transfer, coding, processing, decoding, transfer, etc. is science - with some art, if you're lucky

What really matters is the mechanical filters in use and the specific environment where the transduction occurs...both the physical environment, and the inner landscape of the listener...as well as their relative positions.

[Drew Stephenson]

This article may be useful reading: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/wi ... -musicians