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[tgundo2003]

Over the weekend I downloaded the Fun. Some Nights album off the HD Tracks website. I downloaded the 24 bit 44.1 AIFF verson.

I started listening to it and noticed if really sounded distorted on certain tracks. At first i thought it was a jast a bad transfer, but i decided to dig deeper and noticed when i look at my audio path that it says the source is 44.1 16bit, not the 24 bit that it should be. In the colum for bitdepth it says it's a 24 bit file.

Any idea what is going here? Why would the colum report its 24 bit but audio path show 16?

[6233638]

In the menus, go to Player > DSP Studio.

Under output format, you can choose the bit-depth that you will be outputting.


Playing a 24-bit source file at 16-bit shouldn't be introducing any distortion though.

[tgundo2003]

I have DSP set to source Bitdepth, but the issue is that it shows the source at 16 bit, not 24 which it should be...

[6233638]

Sorry, I didn't read your post properly and misunderstood the problem. No idea why it would be listed as 24-bit but then play as 16-bit.

I would suggest that you set output bit-depth to the maximum supported on your system though. There is nothing detrimental to outputting 16-bit files at 24-bit for example - all it does is give you some extra headroom for volume control.

[bobkatz]

Over the weekend I downloaded the Fun. Some Nights album off the HD Tracks website. I downloaded the 24 bit 44.1 AIFF verson.

I started listening to it and noticed if really sounded distorted on certain tracks. At first i thought it was a jast a bad transfer, but i decided to dig deeper and noticed when i look at my audio path that it says the source is 44.1 16bit, not the 24 bit that it should be. In the colum for bitdepth it says it's a 24 bit file.

Any idea what is going here? Why would the colum report its 24 bit but audio path show 16?

Do you have an independent way of checking this file's specs? It's possible that HD tracks made a mistake. JRiver reports the wordlength correctly of every file in my collection.

[InflatableMouse]

If you are feeding the signal digitally to an external DAC (receiver) it could be that 24-bits is being reported as unsupported, or MC thinks its unsupported.

Why don't you try setting it to 24-bits manually? Typically, you should set MC to the highest bit depth supported by your hardware unless you have specific reasons not to do so.

[tgundo2003]

Here is the setup:

MC on a PC with an internal AES16 sound card, AES/EBU out to an RDL AES/EBU to SPDIF converter/distribution box which feeds 4 independent systems in our 2-channel demo room. Using AISO, and the output is always Direct Connection in a 32bit format, Source Bitdepth, Source number of channels, no changes being made.

I verified that 24/48, 24/88.2, 24/96, 24/176.4, 24/192, and 16/44.1 all report and playback properly. This Fun album is my first 24/44.1 album.

Here is the strange thing I noticed. When playing, if I pull up the audio path box it shows it correctly, Input 44.1/24, output 44.1/32 using AISO (direct connection). If I click on DSP Studio, at the bottom of the window is where it shows Source: 44.1/16.

To further complicate this.....While playing around checking the formats, all of the sudden when I went back to the fun album the DSP studio window showed the correct input of 44.1/24! So I decided to switch the track to a 44.1/16 bit, and wouldn't you know it the DSP Studio window was incorrectly reporting it as 44.1/24, even after I went out and went back in it didnt correct itself.

Further testing shows that if I switch to a completely different format, like 24/96, and then switch back to a 16/44.1 then the DSP studio window reports correctly. Possible Bug?

Now I need to go sit in the room and listen (the PC is not in the same room as the equipment, we use JRemote on an iPad to demo) and see if this is affecting sound quality or if it's just a crappy recording.

[tgundo2003]

Update...

I'll listen more later, but as far as I can tell this does not affect sound quality. Looks like just a display bug.

Damn shame, theres some good stuff on that album...but when the louder passages come it just plain sucks...Maybe I'll go buy the CD and rip that and compare to the HD tracks copy.

[mwillems]

Update...

I'll listen more later, but as far as I can tell this does not affect sound quality. Looks like just a display bug.

darn shame, theres some good stuff on that album...but when the louder passages come it just plain sucks...Maybe I'll go buy the CD and rip that and compare to the HD tracks copy.

I've got FLACs ripped from the CD, and I can say that there's definitely distortion on the lead vocals and guitars.  Not sure if you're hearing the same thing I am, but I can confirm that there is at least some audible distortion in the program material (possibly applied deliberately as a filter, as I can only hear it on certain program elements).  

Compared to some other recent pop recordings I've heard, the distortion is mild, but still plenty irritating.