Kernel Streaming better than WASAPI?

[zdenes]

I was wondering what other people have experienced. I have had a Devialet since 2010 and have been following Devialet's recommendations on most issues but over the years I have realised that despite having built this state-of-the-art technology they surely haven't tried all options and setting in all operating systems and playback software. They recommend one that works (at least they say it should). 
Since I got my upgrade and have been able to stream I have been using AIR (ethernet, as wifi is unstable - a joke in itself), and using WASAPI output as was recommended - now on JRiver 22. 

The other day I got this strange idea to try to stream through my MSB Universal Media Transport (for movies) using the same PC and JRiver as DLNA server. To my surprise, it sounded waaay better than AIR. So much, that I decided not to use AIR at all. 

I tried to set the MSB as DLNA renderer but as it's built on OPPO-BDP93 I couldn't (only available in BDP-103 and up). In the meantime, I had to fiddle with JRiver, learned a lot and "what can happen", I installed an ASIO driver and set three zones in JRiver, one with WASAPI, one with ASIO and one with Kernel Streaming. To cut a long story short, Kernel Streaming sounds the best, possibly even better or on par with the MSB. ASIO is also better than WASAPI. I've spent the whole weekend googling what other people have experienced and to me, the conclusion was that Kernel Streaming sounded better to those who listened and not just thought 'bit perfect is bit perfect'. At the same time, I found little on this forum on this matter. 

Anybody else tried to compare these outputs in JRiver or other playback software?

[Dr Tone]

I've always preferred the sound of ASIO over WASAPI, even though my common sense tells me there should be no difference.

Kernel streaming is ancient and the world has moved on. No software I run supports it. And I have no intentions of installing JRiver ever again.

[zdenes]

Common sense... would tell us to listen to Spotify on our smartphones, through blue-tooth speakers...
Of course, I was talking about JRiver and these three options. As far as I understand, Direct Sound paths through K-mixer in Windows, ASIO and WASAPI go straight to the soundcard (no K-mixer), the former is essentially a driver in the sound application-soundcard communication and WASAPI is the Windows's own universal solution to this. Kernel is even further reliant on hardware only least affected by Windows or installed software/drivers, etc.

[yabaVR]

I use Kernel-Streaming in Jplay on their ASIO-Driver - USB directly to the D. Sounds awesome. But there is so much parameters to try that's important for good sound...you've to invest a lot of time and consideration of other users experiences...for me mostly the harshness others do experience is the way to go because in harshness there is hidden resolution. It's only phase shifted but if you get the phase matching...that's where the magic is.

gui