Best quality? Specific endpoint virtual out or virtual loopback?

[jws...@gmail.com]

I'm confused about all the options for audio output. I want an exclusive high quality connection. I have VAC installed.

My media player (music bee) can output directsound or WASAPI  to:

- primary sound driver

- virtual out (VAC out cable)

- speakers

My audio inputs include:

- Stereo mix

- Virtual In (VAC in cable)

In tuneblade, I can select a virtual loopback or specific endpoint. I'm guessing that the lowest latency connection would be

media player -> WASAPI to virtual out -> Tuneblade specific endpoint virtual out

Am I wrong? Should I have tuneblade broadcasting from the virtual input or stereo mix?

Thanks!

[TuneBlade Support]

HI, 

Thank you for writing to us. 

One of the main reasons we've different recording modes in TuneBlade is to overcome audio capturing limitations of various systems. For example, "Stereo Mix" input isn't available on most PCs sold in the past 5-6 years, the other solutions available to capture system-wide audio has been virtual audio cables and WASAPI Loopback APIs (available on Vista/7/8/8.1/10). WASAPI loopback APIs allow us to capture audio from any audio-out endpoint. TuneBlade provides these recording mode options to work well on any Windows PC (Vista and later). You'll find the following page useful to understand more on the reasons for having these capture modes: 

http://tuneblade.com/support/Documentation/2.html

We don't think there is any significant latency difference between Stereo Mix and Virtual Cable method. You can go either way, but since Virtual Cable requires an installation of virtual drivers, while Stereo Mix is available on your system, use Specific Recording Mode with Stereo Mix as input. 

Hope this clarifies, please feel free to contact us again. 

Thanks,

The TuneBlade Team

 

[jws...@gmail.com]

Thanks for your help!


A follow up question. I've been trying to perfect my wireless streaming setup. I have a GGMM airplay/dlna receiver with optical output to the receiver. My windows 10 laptop is running Tuneblade. Both of these work, but switching takes a bit of time so testing is hard. Please help out a perfectionist. Which of these options would maximize quality?

1) Musicbee WASAPI -> Virtual Audio Cable (16bit 48khz) -> picked up by Tuneblade endpoint

2) Musicbee - Realtek ASIO (native) -> Realtek Stereo Mix -> Tuneblade endpoint
- BUT with an audio cable plugged into the 3.5mm jack, since there's NO other way to mute laptop speaker output (disabling or muting mutes stream)

native ASIO should be better, but is this fake headphone cable drawing some of the processing power/quality away?

[TuneBlade Support]

Hi, 

Both options provide excellent quality. The fake headphone cable does not effect the quality. 

Normally, there is some re-sampling involved in both the options. TuneBlade will re-sample the audio if it isn't 44.1khz 16 bit 2 channel using Windows codecs with highest quality settings. We think using HiFi Cable from VB-Audio for loopback and setting HiFi Cable to 44.1 khz, 16 bit should give the best quality as the AirPlay audio will be bit perfect with respect to the output from the music application.  

Please feel free to contact us again. 

Thanks, 

The TuneBlade Team