A Really Dumb Question

[James1776]

I have a friend who is just into computer audio. He has a new USB 24/96 DAC (don't know which) that he has hooked up to an old PC. He does not have any special audio software and is using the included window program to pay music. Is he getting a 24/96 signal from the PC to the DAC or is the windows program downsampling the hi rez file to CD quality???

 

I use J-River and know what my DAC is getting. Is there a way to check in the windows program???

[Jabs1542]

What he gets is based on the source, possibly a 16:44 wav file, or possibly something less as an mp3. When you play a 16 bit CD and send it to a 24 bit DAC you don't magically get 24 bit sound, the DAC will automatically step down to 16 bit.

 

I'm assuming that the source file is most likely not 24 bit since you mentioned that he didn't have any special software to play it. Does the DAC have any lights on it? Sometimes there are lights that indicate the bit depth and/or sample rate.

[wakibaki]

Can't you tell just by listening?

 

Just kidding.

 

You need to be a bit more specific, Windows version, program, file type, where'd it come from?

 

There could be a down-sampling issue with USB. You have to disable Windows Direct Sound IIRC.

 

Simplest to download and install Foobar + ASIO4ALL.

 

w

[James1776]

What he gets is based on the source, possibly a 16:44 wav file, or possibly something less as an mp3. When you play a 16 bit CD and send it to a 24 bit DAC you don't magically get 24 bit sound, the DAC will automatically step down to 16 bit.

 

I'm assuming that the source file is most likely not 24 bit since you mentioned that he didn't have any special software to play it. Does the DAC have any lights on it? Sometimes there are lights that indicate the bit depth and/or sample rate.

 

I do not know what DAC he bought but I plan to bring a memory stick full of real 24/96 files to the system, real because I recorded them from Hi-rez sources like Linn and Blue Coast. The thing is, If I plug a stick full of high rez files into a PC only running the windows player, will that player down sample the files to 16/44.1?

[James1776]

I use J-Rivers MC19 and have for a long while. This will be my first try at playing High Rez files on someone elses system and I am not confident the windows player will play Hi-Rez without fiddling, if at all.

[esldude]

I use J-Rivers MC19 and have for a long while. This will be my first try at playing High Rez files on someone elses system and I am not confident the windows player will play Hi-Rez without fiddling, if at all.

 

Then the simple thing is don't use the Windows Player.

 

Foobar is free, takes a couple minutes to download. Then you can set it up to playback in WASAPI mode or ASIO or Kernel streaming and be sure of what you are getting. Or download a trial copy of J-Rivers or one of the other well known pieces of playback software. Even if using Foobar it might be worth a few minutes to familiarize yourself with it and the procedure to get the WASAPI plug-in.

 

Now wish I could tell you if Windows Player can be bit perfect(probably someone can), but Windows players are something I gave up on long ago. With so many good, better and free pieces of software I don't much see the point in using the built in player.

[Paul R]

Hi James - it really kind of depends a bit on the exact configuration - as in the version of Windows he is running and so forth. In general, it play audio at whatever the audio device is setup to play at. You *usually* get to that through the control panel Sound icon, and there is often a series of settings including volume, sample rate, stereo setting, etc. There can also be a slew of DSP settings in there, but that depends upon the device, the version of windows, and so forth.

 

I would tell him to try going into the Control Panel -> Sound and setup the device to 24/96, or whatever he prefers.

 

If it were me, I would talk him into JRMC or iTunes myself.

 

-Paul

[James1776]

Thanks to all for the advice....

[JohnSwenson]

The generic windows sound system does not resample if two requirements are met:

1) the DAC can support the format of the file

2) only one program is sending audio data to that DAC

 

To satisfy #1 just make sure the DAC can handle what you are sending to it.

To satisfy #2 go to the sound applet in the control panel and set all system sounds to play on the internal speakers or other sound card. Then in WMP go to the options menu and set the "speakers" to be the new DAC. You should now just have your files getting sent to the DAC.

 

John S.