[neya]

Hmmm, maybe..I suspect it could be something to do with the ASIO drivers, because there is some "spatial-ness" enabled when I use Linux instead of Windows for such stuff. To verify this, I tried playing a FLAC ripped directly from an Audio CD I had @ 1140kbps approx. and I'm not sure how to put it, but I can confirm there was a "spatial-ness" and more instrument-level distinguish-ability while on Linux. Maybe its specific to just this laptop? Who knows...

[nitrogen]

An increased "clarity" or "spaciousness" of sound can be caused by anything from a slight increase in total gain (even as small as 0.5dB) to bypassing or enabling bass and treble controls, even if the controls are set to zero. Some sound chips also have "3D" effects which mix inverted and/or delayed copies of the left and right channels with each other, that can increase or decrease perceived spaciousness. Differences in power management approaches between the operating systems can increase or decrease electrical noise in the system (more noise means finer details are masked), and could also affect the accuracy of the sample rate clock, resulting in different amounts or types of sample jitter between OSes. There are other DAC parameters (i.e. DC bias -- some chips might be able to produce a balanced signal between -Vs and +Vs, but only if they have a negative supply; otherwise they have to fall back to 0V to Vs) that Linux may be programming differently.

The best way to identify any differences is to run the audio into a calibrated measurement device (at the very top end an Audio Precision box) and check the gain, frequency response, jitter, THD+N, etc.

[neya]

Thank you, this is a very clear and crisp answer. Something I definitely wanted to know about! Cheers!

Edit: Will calibrate and let you know mate. Thanks!

[cageface]

These kinds of things can be surprisingly subjective. An audio driver in this case shouldn't be doing much more than shoveling bytes into a device buffer.

[vacri]

An example of expectations shaping opinion in audio: I remember walking into a small upmarket shopping mall and thinking "wow, the sound system in here is amazing - it sounds just like there's an actual piano being played". I turned the corner, and there was a pianist on a baby grand...