Windows® 7 DSD Setup Guide for foobar2000 (Essence III)

Essence III has native support for both DSD64 and DSD128 encoding rates via a native Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) driver, allowing audiophiles to indulge in digital listening at the highest possible quality levels.

The example below shows how to configure your Windows 7 PC with an Essence III USB DAC using ASIO for DSD playback through the foobar2000 media player:

  • Install Essence III

    Please follow the quick-start guide to install the Essence III USB audio 2.0 driver and your Essence product. Make sure the Essence product is set as the default audio device.

  • Install foobar2000 and setup ASIO mode

    Please refer to Windows® 7 ASIO Setup Guide for foobar2000 for more details.

  • DSD playback setup

    Step 1: Download the DSD component

    You’ll find the necessary ‘foo_input_sacd’ file at

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/sacddecoder/files/

    Download the file and save it to your PC.

    Step 2: Install the DSD component

    Return to File>Preferences>Components and click the ‘Install’ button.

    Install-component-1

    Select ‘foo_input_sacd’ component and click the ‘Open’ button.

    Install-component

    Click the ‘Apply’ button and restart foobar2000.

    Apply-SACD

    Step 3: Set DSD playback mode

    Double-click ‘foo_dsd_asio’ under File>Preferences>Output>Playback>Output>ASIO

    Double-click-ASIO-dsd

    Then select ‘Xonar Essence 3 ASIO’ as the ASIO Driver:

    foo_DSD_asio

    Select ‘ASIO Native’ from the DSD Playback Method menu, then close the window.

    DSD-playback-method

    Choose ‘DSD’ under File>Preferences>Tools>SACD

    Then click ‘Apply’. (Foobar2000 will now restart automatically.)

    ASIO-driver-mode

    Finally, select ‘ASIO: foo_dsd_asio’ under File>Preference>Output>Device.

    Click the ‘Apply’ button followed by ‘OK’.

    DSD-output

    DSD audio output is now enabled. Enjoy listening!