Hd not recognized on dac...iTunes, pc, USB problem

I'll first address the format question:

No, you can't play FLAC on iTunes, and since you are using a PC, there is no free solution for converting FLAC to ALAC (m4a).

I used foobar2000 for quite some time before switching to JRMC15, and I think there are a few settings you need to check, both in foobar and Win7.

In Win7: Right click your volume icon in the tray and select "Playback Devices". You should see your W4S DAC as an available output device; select it and click properties. Once here, select the "Advanced" tab. Make sure that "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" is checked, as well as "Give exclusive mode applicaitons priority" Ensure that any "Signal Enhancements" are deselected. The shared mode bit depth and sampling frequency is not relevant when the device is being used in exclusive mode.

Once this is done, head into foobar. Find the section under settings that deals with "output" or "playback" settings. From the dropdown menu, you are able to select your device (W4S DAC) as well as the method of delivery to the outboard device. Your best options are WASAPI, ASIO, or Kernel Streaming (best choice, but requires a foobar2000 add-on). Ensure that one of these is selected and NOT Direct Sound or "DS".

You shouldn't have any more issues once you check and change the appropriate settings.

To more directly address one of your questions: If you're running Windows 7 audio output in shared mode, a sample rate conversion is certainly taking place. The audio is also being molested on its way out of the PC through digital EQ, volume leveling, peak clipping, THX mastering, surround processing, etc.; of which all are functions of the glorious Windows Kernel Mixer.

HD Tracks? use J River....I hear from some folks that iTunes will now play FLAC files, but what they are saying does not give me a lot of confidence...To really maximize my computer sound, I had to ditch iTunes and reload, yes reload all of my cd's into J River. Yes is was a pain (700 cd's) but it was worth it. Maybe iTunes will become Hi Fi someday, but it isn't now. All of the above is just my opinion on what worked for me.

Thankyou all for the help!

With it, i was able to make it all work!!

Still with foobar (even though i don't like the user experience). i changed the playback device settings, uploaded flac plug-in, wasapi and KS.with wasapi, i reduced the buffer to 500ms but I also changed the playback setting to play the songs from RAM. Ialso increased foobar's priority as a process to high.

working great. However no album art, no easy browsing,... which iis why i may try jriver. Is there anyway to import my itunes library in jriver? my itunes consists of Apple lossless formatted files.

By the way, itunes does play Apple lossless at 24/96 but it downsampkes it because my dac only recognizes a 44.1 stream.

SInce my current dac doesn't play 88.2, im using r8brain to convert 88.2 to 96, it does force me to go via an extra painful wav conversion.Are there better solutions out there? I may otherwise buy the MF v-link to same me from the hazzle.

When I thought everything was solved i was wrong. On longer tracks after a few minutes the jitter reemerges, and the musics skips so much that my DAC loses the connection.

Are there any benchmarks that evaluate PC/laptop quality for audio USB playback.

I use a PC with XP and Foobar2K with Kernel Streaming plug-in. Never have any problems with 192 tracks and I run it for days on end, breaking in products.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio