Questions about the KEF X300A Speakers

[m021478]

As seen on the homepage of ComputerAudiophile.com today, Van Halen's first six studio albums were made available today on HDtracks.com in high resolution at both 24bit/96kHz and 24bit/192kHz.

 

First question... seeing as how the KEF X300A speakers I'm using have a 24bit/96kHz DAC built-in to them, I assume it would be pointless to buy the 24bit/192kHz version of the Van Halen albums because these speakers wouldn't be capable of playing them back in all their glory... correct? Would there be any improvement in sound quality when playing back 24bit/192kHz music versus 24bit/96kHz when using these speakers, or none at all?

 

Second question... in an attempt to confirm whether or not the KEF speakers were capable of 24bit/192kHz I opened the Audio Midi Setup program on my Mac and noticed the following default settings for my KEF speakers:

 

You'll notice that the Format was set to 44100.0 Hz by default, but I do have the option of changing the Format setting to 96000.0 Hz... Should I?

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

[john57]

You can adjust the default to 96k. The reason is set for 44k is that the sampling rate for the red-book CD standard. You KEF speakers can handle all sampling rates up to 96k. Once you set the MAC default to 96k as an example it will always up sample to 96k even with Cd's and if you play a 192k file your MAC will down-sample to 96k before it is send to the speakers DAC. You may not hear a difference between 96k and 192k files even with a DAC that can go to 192k and in some rare cases the sound can degraded when playing 192k files bit perfect on a DAC that is capable of that speed. Normally the USB is limited to 96K except with a special driver.

[m021478]

You mention that I "can" adjust the default to 96k, but what I'd like to know is should I. If I leave it at 44k, I assume I'd be bottlenecking the performance of my KEF speakers by restricting their maximum potential ... correct?

 

Is there be any degradation of quality for music that gets up-sampled to 96k?

[mayhem13]

 

Is there be any degradation of quality for music that gets up-sampled to 96k?

 

ANY time you playback a file different from the native resolution, you run the risk of an audible difference between the up or down sampled version and the native version. Whether or not YOU can discern a difference , no one can say BUT you're in the best position to find out by listening to both and comparing.

 

Personally, i don't find any advantage to 24/192 files and can barely hear a difference from standard Redbook and 24/96, and the difference isn't necessarily always 'better'.

 

So IMO, playback at native resolution is preferred when possible. In your case, now locked into manually changing playback mode with the KEFs, I'd suggest doing some critical listening comparisons before investing in any HiRes music.

[m021478]

Aside from the question about 24bit/96kHz VS. 24bit/192kHz, would you recommend changing the Audio Midi Setup for my KEF speakers to default to 96k?

[Richard Dale]

Aside from the question about 24bit/96kHz VS. 24bit/192kHz, would you recommend changing the Audio Midi Setup for my KEF speakers to default to 96k?

 

It is better to use a music player that changes the resolution automatically to match the track you are playing. If you don't want to spend a lot of money BitPerfect is the cheapest way of achieving that (as well as sounding better than iTunes). You can just use iTunes normally once BitPerfect has started and so you don't have to notice anything has changed apart from the Audio Midi bug with iTunes being fixed.

[mayhem13]

Aside from the question about 24bit/96kHz VS. 24bit/192kHz, would you recommend changing the Audio Midi Setup for my KEF speakers to default to 96k?

 

Do you have any HiDef 24/96 or 24/192 files?

 

if no, then no.....leave them at Redbook......unless there's 'Auto' in that drop down box?