Yes well I mean it should be the same.
No idea why A/B testing if it’s bit perfect then :).
Yes I know what it is, I have asio bit perfect setup from Foobar ;).
When I did my test I was really trying to see what the different GUIs would be like and how the responsiveness of the two compared for things like sorting, GUI buttons etc. I would have thought exactly as other have commented here: all digital, all bit perfect so all sound exactly the same but the test was the test and my family, as I said, had no idea what I was doing and no bias as to which one should sound “better”. In fact they could not care less which one I use so I figure they are an objective judging panel!
Since my first writing I have repeated this demo on some audio friends, again without saying what, if anything, I was going to change. In fact I pretended to do a swap a couple of times and they picked it every time. These guys are vinyl nuts and have no favourites in terms of streamer software at all.
I am not saying which alternative sounded “better” but there was a clear difference between MOode and Volumio using a Mercury2 on my system.
I was a Daphile user and on a whim booted up to Volumio. Thinking bits is bits like a good electronics person, I was unprepared for the dramatic and obvious difference between the two. Volumio was more transparent, dynamic and had better high frequency extension. I have no idea why. I verified it with an audiophile friend as well who picked the Volumio out of two unidentified files I recorded.