MAC PRO Question

[James Tanner]

HI All,

 

James here from Bryston:

 

My Mac Pro - arrived on Friday - Question:

 

When running Mac OS/X, they support 16, 20 and 24 bits per channel at 44.1, 48 and 96 khz (just like all the other macs in the current product lineup).

 

Under Windows Vista (64 bit), running under boot-camp (Apple's multiple boot utility), It also supports 16 and 24 bit/channel at 192 khz.

 

Am I doing something wrong? Why wouldn't OS/X support the 192/24 sample rate, as the underlying hardware on the Mac Pro does seem to support it or am I mistaken?

 

james

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi James - I'll assume you're using the built-in optical output. Apple states in many documents that this output supports 24/192, but in reality nobody has every got this to work under OS X. Not even Apple. OS X with a Lynx card will certainly output up to 192.

 

I am very curious to hear it works under Vista. Are you sure it isn't just upsampling to 192? I'll boot to Vista in a bit to check it out for myself.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi James - I know we've exchanged emails about this already, but I'll post my findings so everyone else has the information.

 

I was able to output 24/192 bit perfect audio from my Mac Pro's built-in optical output. Under OS X 24/96 is the maximum, but under Windows Vista 64-bit Ultimate 24/192 worked. Even using Windows Media Player!

 

[wappinghigh]

Chris. This is incredible! So it's a software issue then with OSX? I find this amazing. For years Apple has been THE software for music...am I right on this? Now we find Apple has been one up'd by Microsoft. Hey guys what is goin' on?

 

It's also important news in planning the best way to get audio out of a MacPro. Why get the Lynx card now, if you can run optical out say straight into one of Empirical's pacecars at 24/192? Why get a firewire interface for something like Amarra if this solution becomes available using the MacPro midi....

 

I get the feeling a punter like me could save potential hundreds on this by waiting just a couple more months till the dust settles on all this...

 

AB