Help Me Tweak System...

First, never use iTunes on an XP PC.

Use Foobar 0.8.3 and Directsound or Jriver. Rip to .wav files, dont use compression, not even lossless FLAC.

Then unmap the device that you are using (USB interface) to avoid kmixer. Instructions:

Go to Control Panel - System Hardware - Device Manager - Sound Video and Game Controllers – (your device) - Right-Click and select Properties - Audio Devices – (your device) - Properties - Set "Do not use audio features" and set "Do not map through this Device"

You will need to reboot and then if you change it back to mapped, then you must re-boot.

If you dont have Foobar 0.8.3, then email me.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Steve,
Thanks very much for the reply and specific suggestions.

Why Foobar? Somebody I know is using MediaMonkey. Would this work as well?

I will try your recommendations and report back.

Steve,

I'm curious why you're steering him away from FLAC or other compression formats? Is this only an XP platform issue in your mind, as I thought the general concensus 6 months ago was compression formats don't impart any measurable sonic degradation (aside from taxing the processor slightly to "uncompress" the file before playback)?

I'm not intending to open up another debate on who thinks WAV is better than FLAC, or ALAC is better than WAV, but I've flipped back and forth between WAV and ALAC on a Mac and there's very, very slight differences. From a resource standpoint, an uncompressed format is doable given how cheap memory is now compared to the past (maybe that's the answer to the question...).