Peachtree Nova and AudioMidi setup on Mac

[AudioDoctor]

IIRC the original Nova won't play 88.2khz files.

 

You can resample the 88.2 files to something else I suppose.

 

AS far as Amarra HiFi goes, go ahead and open its preferences and uncheck the "Follow Core Audio" setting and select the Nova as the output device from within Amarra. Also, read the iTunes 11.03 thread and the Amarra suport thread for tips and tricks.

 

None of that however will get the Nova to play 88.2 files. The Nova simply won't unless you up/down sample them.

[AudioDoctor]

Thanks for your reply... I must admit, that I have always thought that a DAC capable of 24/96 was capable of anything UP TO 24/96... Next time I'll pay more attention to the specs.... So do you think setting the MIDI at the Built In Digital setting 96k is the best option in this case?

 

I am not sure. It has been a while since I have had my Nova. If you do set Core Audio to 96k I think, but am not sure, that the mac will resample everything to 96k. If you set the Nova to not follow Core Audio, and set the Nova as the output in Amarra (independently from the system output) it will automatically change the outgoing sample rate to match that of the file being played. You can save the native 88.2khz files in a folder and resample them offline and put them in place of the 88.2 files in iTunes.

 

Peachtree has a USB > S/PDIF converter called the X-1. I bet it would make a difference in sound quality, whether or not it is better is up to you. The benefit as I understand it is twofold. First, the USB connection is asynchronous meaning it is not dependent on the computer generated clock info because it uses its own, lowering jitter. Second, because the outgoing S/PDIF info relies on the clock info on the converter which is dealing with much less jitter it can be of higher quality, improving output.