let me give you a short recap of my very very early Sunday morning.
i decided quite impulsively to reread the original post of the "Computer as a music source" thread in pinoydvd...
i have read this thread several times already, but i only got to really understand all the details now that i have familiarized myself with common terms and software. previous to reading it today, i had already switched to foobar2k, as it is open source, and has support for virtually any format. that's when i noticed the mention of Asio4all. did a bit of research and found out that this is a foolproof way of bypassing most onboard soundcard processing. all you need to do is download and install supportive players such as winamp and of course foobar2k, install the asio4all driver, and also download and install the asio plugin of your chosen player. oh btw, i am assumming that you are using a windows xp or vista laptop...
now here is where it get's interesting. again, quite randomly, i decided to include the words "superpro dac 707" to my google search string which originally was "using asio4all with foobar2k"
lo and behold, google produced links containing complaints of the superpro suddenly producing drop outs and clicking with hisses when using foobar and asio4all due to the fact that it uses the generic usb dac driver of windows. i know i know, there's a possibility that you are thinking that this is not useful as you are currently using a different player, like itunes. but bear with me.
just this year, somebody found a solution to the bugs. and this solution involves installing the specific driver of our beloved 707's usb chip. supposedly this helps you configure the 707 completely and absolutely as the driver is controlled via an icon on the system tray. so basically, this allows you to set it to 44hz ALL the time. also provides seamless integration with asio4all.
in the first place kasi, i assumed that since i was using a usb cable, that i was immediately bypassing the soundcard. this very simple process at the very least gives us peace of mind that the dac is bypassing. so if you are willing, i suggest you download and install asio4all, foobar2000, its asio plugin, and then read this very helpful thread...
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/useful-info-superpro-707-usb-dac-owners-maybe-other-usb-dacs-too-410599/after doing so, and configuring your foobar to output to asio4all v2 with the usb dac left and right enabled, and also using the 707 specific driver mentioned in the thread above, you should now be able to stream 16, 20 and 24bit data perfectly, and also have the option to use kernel streaming and hardware buffering, which all help combat and minimize the dreaded latency. also installing the driver totally eliminates the bugs mentioned in any case.
here are some more threads that might help bring coherance to my very messy pm.
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/asio4all-explanation-221237/http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Foobar-Super-Pro-707-USB-Dac-Asio-noisedropoutshttp://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t69648.htmlhttp://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/useful-info-superpro-707-usb-dac-owners-maybe-other-usb-dacs-too-410599/i have downloaded everything but i am waaaaaay too sleepy to be able to configure and assess objectively. i shall rest first. but if you have the time and are willing please do try this and let me know if there is an improvement.
i would follow the settings posted in the headfi faq thread, except after installing the specific usb driver, i would tick the kernel streaming and the hardware buffering boxes as the only reason the poster from headfi advised against enabling them was that the dac was still using the generic driver and thus was not able to process these settings properly. at it's worst, this experiment should provide no improvement. at best, it might provide even better sq! hard to imagine, but like i always say, there's only one way to find out right?