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Tag Archive for driver

Things I realized while refactoring USB audio drivers for Nimitra server

 in Article

 

Image result for xmos audio driver

 

Today I refactored USB audio drivers for Nimitra server and update latest drivers from possible sources I found for 2019 update. While during driver update for whole night, I realized something interesting.

 

1. Many clients are computer illiterate and I often see my Fidelizer clients asking his friends to setup with driver. Companies not providing public driver support will cause a lot of trouble for their clients who don’t setup driver themselves. I’m sure they have their reasons but refusing to provide public driver download can cause clients returning products due to unexpected issues.

2. Driver download should be easily accessible. Some companies don’t provide driver download in product or support page and browsing through site’s structure to find downloadable content can make some people giving up on trying. Some companies also made a good decision to adopt single technology and make universal driver for all products which is very nice.

3. Products with more up to date drivers will take higher priority on customer’s checklist. Some used to be famous products gaining less attention due to using legacy XMOS driver version 1.61 and newer Windows 10 with updates may have strange issues for some.

 

I also saw a few companies leaving industry and some redirected audiophile website to some random shops instead which is kinda sad too. Computer audio should be easier to use with less trouble and I hope Nimitra can help getting better audio experience with passionate products.

Windows 10 Creators Update’s UAC2 driver – Is it better than OEM driver?

 in Article

Warning: This is purely subjective listening tests. Please keep in mind this is personal opinion and speculations.

I’ve been eagerly to test this for a long while but I have been so busy lately with lots of things to do now. Today I finished some works and have some free time to do some small tests. I’ll use Hiface Two to test between new UAC2 driver in Windows 10 Creators Update and M2Tech USB Audio Driver.

Windows 10 Creators Update’s UAC2 Driver: It works. It doesn’t sound that bad. I find Windows 10 sounding a lot similar to Linux/OS X now. Maybe it’s sound from mapping to UAC2 interface in firmware. Hires and DSD DoP formats worked too.

M2Tech USB Audio Driver: Are you kidding me? This makes Windows 10’s UAC2 driver sounds duller. It brings better transparency and cleaner sound with this driver. I also enjoy music better with improved transient attack and slam of dynamics.

The sound improvement is no less from Windows 10 v1607 to v1703 to my ears. If you set to streaming buffer to Low Latency option, it’ll sound much more closer to real instruments. It’s a shame that OS X/Linux audiophiles won’t be able to compare and experience this greatness.

Since the result is so obvious, I tried to find the reason why and this is probably why. Here’s how Windows 10 Creators Update’s UAC2 driver works.

UAC2 OS driver -> UAC2 interface driver -> kernel driver

Windows 10’s UAC2 driver will route to UAC2 interface provided in firmware to interact with actual kernel driver. This UAC2 driver is more like a mapper to UAC2 interface driver in hardware device. And here’s how M2Tech USB Audio driver works.

USB Audio driver -> kernel driver

Native UAC2 driver will interact with kernel driver directly. It can stream 24/192 format at 3ms latency. I tested “Minimum Latency” and I can stream 24/192 file at 256 samples as advertised. Impossible on UAC2 driver.

This generic UAC2 driver thing is good to have. It can make Windows based server solutions much easier for those who can’t build a real turnkey Windows based server like Nimitra. However, I recommend to use OEM driver because it’ll be better for most of the times.