Music Playback with Kernel Streaming Just Make the DAC even Better ^^

After getting a DAC such as the recommended Stoner Acoustics UD100 in my previous post or other DAC,  its time to focus back on the music playback software on the pc. There are many positive feedback about setting up the audio player with "Kernel streaming", "ASIO" or "WASAPI-exclusive" can improve audio quality. Personally, i prefer "kernel streaming" over the other settings and will only focus on it in this post.

For the music player part, i personally prefer "ttplayer" (千千静听) and "foobar2000". Both players are also free to download and use. Ttplayer seem to focus more on the vocal part of the song while the instrument part seem a little bit less focus. Besides that, this player also seem to color the vocal a bit to be more sweet to listen to. I used this player when I wanted to listen to some sweet vocal especially during Chinese songs. This player is definitely not suitable for those that wanted the natural or original sound. Foobar2000 is a more natural and balance sounding player. It's the main player on my pc.

Setting Up Kernel Streaming with Ttplayer (千千静听)
Ttplayer already have kernel streaming included. You just have to set it in the settings as long as the DAC support it.

1) Choose setting (千千选项) in Ttplayer.

2) Set it as shown in the picture below. Click save and it's well to go.

Setting Up Kernel Streaming with Foobar2000
Foobar doesn't include kernel streaming when installed.

1) Download the Kernel Streaming for Foobar from: http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_ks
2) Then open Foobar2000 player.
3) Choose "Library" > "Configure".

4) Choose "Components" > "Install".

5) Choose the downloaded zip file without extracting it.
6) Click "OK" and restart Foobar.
7) Go "Library" > "Configure" again.
8) Choose "Playback" > "Output", then choose "KS: (DAC name)".

Verdict
Some may prefer the newly setup sound while some may not. It's totally up to your personal taste. If you don't like the sound of Kernel Streaming, you can just change it back to the old setting. But personally, i think kernel streaming really does improve the sound quality by:
- better separation of vocal and also instruments
- clearer and more power sounding
- less noise
But it is not without flaw. The flaw of kernel streaming is only 1 software can use the DAC at the same time. Sometimes you will found that the flash player of internet browser is hogging the DAC and you are unable to play any song on the player.