The situation is as follows: I recently bought Sennheiser GSX 1000. The device has two main modes: 7.1 and 2.1.
- The 2.1 supports 24bit, 96000Hz (Studio Quality) input. This setting I use for listening to music on my Hi-fi headphones and speakers
- The 7.1 supports up to 16bit, 48000Hz (DVD Quality) input. This setting is useful for games which support 7.1 audio and movies with 7.1 audio
In order to utilize the full potential of the device, the sound settings in the windows need to be set up accordingly in this order:
- Default audio Format needs to be changed (Speaker properties / Advanced / Default Format)
- Setup the audio configuration accordingly
It is so annoying to keep reconfiguring the settings since I spend the whole day on the computer and do something different every so often.
I am already used to switching different audio devices via hotkeys by using a program called SoundSwitch.
My goal is to create a second audio device of GSX 1000 Main Audio (e.g. Speakers surround) and have each device set up the way described above.
Can you help me how can I create duplicate device with different settings so I can use the SoundSwitch accordingly? The output should look like that
Thank you
1 Answer
All in all, you appear to be trying to work around a problem that doesn't really exist.
If your stereo audio source isn't 24/96 [very very few are] you are wasting your time.
Your DAC can only convert what it's given. Setting it higher is of no benefit if you're not feeding it that data.
If your source is MP3, AAC or net radio there is even less reason to change it.
Setting it to 16/48 is a fair compromise, as re-sampling 44.1<->48 for 'CD vs movie' is these days pretty seamless [it was an issue 15-20 years ago, but no longer].
Additionally, if you feed 2.0 audio to a 7.1 output device, you will get 2.0 audio, unless something in-circuit tries to get 'clever'. If it does, switch off the 'clever'.
What you are left with is the simple requirement of switching outputs on demand, the rest can take care of itself. SoundSwitch seems to be payware; there's a perfectly good freeware output switcher, Audio Switcher, which can toggle on key command.
