Does the OS change the sound?

[terrybooth]

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/computer- ... -windows-7
So here we have someone stating that they felt Windows 8 (Release Preview) sounds better than Windows 7. Apart from the obvious comment that the product has not been released to manufacturing yet, so even if it does now, it might not when finally released, does the OS affect the sound?
Well for me it does, and I posted what I found when I installed Ubuntu on my TFS in the other place.
So, how about it? PCs - even Macs - are built on a similar platform. Has anyone out there built a Hackintosh (built a PC from mac compatible components and installed the Mac OS on it)? With one of them we could have an OS bake off - exactly the same hardware just different OSes.

[dazmb]

I would say yes to that. Different bits of software (driver functionality/encoding/decoding) could make one OS sound different even if you maintained the same hardware.

The following driver which bypasses Windows own volume control/pre-amp if you like is believed to make things sound better, so something similar built into the core OS could make one better than another.

http://www.asio4all.com/

And just think about all the processing junk that Windows Media Player has in it - EQ, volume equalisation (quiet mode) & SRS wow processor. I always keep all this stuff turned off! Always sounds better to me that way.

[AJSki2fly]

The probability of getting 2 machines architecturally identical and instal Max OS x on one and windows on the other to do comparisons is very low. Even with the same boards etc. installed there is a risk of chipset revisions and difference between them. You would have to request identical logic boards/sound cards from manufacturers.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Well Jason did it with the TFS and he chose Windows 7.

[terrybooth]

The probability of getting 2 machines architecturally identical and instal Max OS x on one and windows on the other to do comparisons is very low. Even with the same boards etc. installed there is a risk of chipset revisions and difference between them. You would have to request identical logic boards/sound cards from manufacturers.

Of course, this would be quite possible if you simple installed 'Boot Camp' and windows on a MAC or built a Hackintosh from scratch and installed both OSes on that. It's similar to what I've done - having Windows 7 and Ubuntu boot on the same machine - absolutely identical hardware but, to my ears, a different sound.

[terrybooth]

So, I've started an experiment. My TFS will have three different Operating Systems installed on it: Windows 7, as supplied; Windows 8, to test the assertion which I quoted in starting this thread; and some form of Linux.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Should be fun (yawn)

Sorry everything about computers makes me want to go and have a lie down.

Are you sure just having the three systems on the same hard disc wont change the results

[terrybooth]

Someone has to do it, if only to help disperse the BS. No doubt someone will say that the position of the OS on the disk will affect the sound.

[terrybooth]

Absolutely. I agree. I'm just experimenting.

If you want to tinker, then the possibilities offered by Linux are just about endless. My windows 8 experiment has come to naught (couldn't get Brainbit Asio to install with the preview version). However, the out of the box sound would certainly need enhancement (e.g. no support for flac). I now have access to the final version but I will give it a go.

Doing the usual cursory flitting about on't'interweb, it appears Jack is the equivalent of Asio. So I'm going to give Ubuntu Studio a go because that has Jack installed as default.