What is better - bit number and bit rate 1:1 to the DAC, or to have the bit rate already extrapolated in Audirvana? E.G. 1:2?
What about odd extrapolations - e.g. 44.1 to 96 kHz or 176.4 to 192 kHz? Better or worse - or doesn’t matter?
My DAC does not support MQA and DSD, the Audirvana Studio conversion works fine!
With MQA, Audrivana seems to convert the entire piece first before playing it.
DSD, however, starts playing immediately.
My Upsampling table - r8brain used
44.1 → 44.1
48 – 48
88.2 → 88.2
96 → 96
176.4 → 88.2 … or to 192 better?
192 → 192
352.8 → 88.2 … or to 192 better?
384 → 192
Which algorithm is better r8brain or SoX? Whats the difference? Measurable, audible?
My DAC - CORDA DACCORD ff http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/daccord.html
Technical details:
2 coaxial S/PDIF inputs (Cinch)
1 optical S/PDIF input (Toslink)
1 USB-input port (24bit/192kHz)
All inputs electrically isolated using pulse transformers.
…
C-MEDIA CM6631 USB-to-S/PDIF receiver (24bit/192kHz)
WOLFSON WM8804 S/PDIF receiver
Three IQD temperature compensated 2.5 ppm crystal oscillators (TCXO’s) for minimal jitter.
2 pieces WOLFSON WM8741 D/A converter-chip in dual-mono mode
Sampling frequencies / resolution 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 192 kHz / 16, 20, 24 bit (S/PDIF, USB)
I use .flac for PCM files. Mostly ripped with dBpoweramp Music Converter (some with XLD before) - stored an a M1 Mac Mini in full configuration.
PS: Unfortunately, my community account was classified as spam by the system and deleted along with my postings, so this is now the second attempt! I hope it holds now!
I think it don’t means upsampling - it just makes Audirvana output 1:1 bit perfect at those sampling rates. Maybe an Audirvana developer is reading this? →
44.1 → 44.1
48 – 48
88.2 → 88.2
96 → 96
192 → 192
My basic question is whether additional upsampling is useful, because the Wolfson DAC probably does that internally too.
These exceptions are necessary because the DAC cannot handle these sampling rates, which I found out by trying a 176.4 test music file. →
176.4 → 88.2
352.8 → 88.2
384 → 192
Audirvana turns the 24-bit MQA track 352.8 kHz (i.e. 1,211 kbps) into → DAC: 24/88.2
With DSD from DSD64 (i.e. 5.644 kbps) to → DAC: 32/88.2 kHz
With a noise test file 16 bit 176.4 kHz to → DAC: 32/192 kHz
Sometimes 32 bit although the DAC supposedly only supports 24 bit. I would have to read the data sheets of C-MEDIA CM6631 USB-to-S/PDIF receiver (24bit/192kHz), WOLFSON WM8804 S/PDIF receiver, WOLFSON WM8741 D/A converter-chip, especially what they do with bit widths higher than 24 bits.
The last of these tests was several months ago and I still had the Audirvana version from January … March - now the Audirvana Studio 2.1.0 (20100) macOS 13.0.1 with 16GB physical RAM is installed.
it is clearly for me a 32 bits dac, so leave it at 32 in the settings…
it doesn’t play at 32 it just shows it could
it is strange for the 176.4 frequency but i’ve seen that bug somewhere over the years maybe your DAC as new firmware update since time you bought yours?
Jan Meier does not offer a firmware update option.
Since I bought the DAC from him, I have already spoken to him about this.
Jan Meier originally came from the headphone amplifier DIY scene. He lives on the Dutch-German border and speaks very good German. He designed the DAC himself, but has it made in China by a contract manufacturer.
Have a quick look here Jan Meier, Meier Audio
PS: I hope the link is not recognised as spam again
I also realise that this discussion is rather philosophical.
In the wild’ you can hardly find music in file formats for download like MQA, DSD, 176.4kHz, over 192kHz. From 176.4kHz I only found test noise signals. MQA and DSD are also rather niche.
Most is offered in PCM formats like 16/44.1, 24/96, 24/192.
Unfortunately, you can’t get to the DSD track of an SACD with normal means, otherwise I would have ripped DSD from my many hybrid discs anyway.
