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[Andrei]

Hi all!
I'm using JRiver for file streaming. Recently I found out about the "audiophile 24 bit DAC" option in the DLNA server settings so I started using it. I'm shocked at the difference it makes. The sound is so much better in every way, but especially in the top end. It's like a I have a different DAC, a more expensive one. But I just don't quite understand it. How does this work? What is exactly this setting doing? It just transforms my DAC into something better, but I don't understand the process of it. What is with this difference between using it and not using it? Can anyone please explain it to me? Thank you!

[csimon]

I'm not sure but I think this is just a preset for options that are already in the DLNA settings, and it probably converts the file to PCM 24-bit and a high sample rate before sending.  If your files are lossless in the first place then this shouldn't really make any difference and to hear the file exactly as it should be you should actually do no conversion at all, but I think there are some who feel that upconversion makes things sound better. "Better" is subjective, what I think you probably mean is that for some reason it sounds different and you prefer that difference and maybe your DAC and amplifier work better with such a signal er perhaps it's their "native" format and don't have to do much work (I don't how they work...), but it's not necessarily reproducing the original file accurately and faithfully.

You might learn a bit more about what it's doing by playing around manually with the DLNA settings, file format, bit-level, sampling etc and see what combination works better for you - as I said, the option you have selected I think is just a preset.

[AndrewFG]

I'm not sure but I think this is just a preset for options that are already in the DLNA settings, and it probably converts the file to PCM 24-bit and a high sample rate before sending.  If your files are lossless in the first place then this shouldn't really make any difference and to hear the file exactly as it should be you should actually do no conversion at all, but I think there are some who feel that upconversion makes things sound better.

He might have had it set before to always convert to MP3 (??) -- in which case changing to no conversion (or conversion to L16/24) would certainly be a major improvement...

[csimon]

Sometimes, you just can't see the wood for the trees!  

[Andrei]

He might have had it set before to always convert to MP3 (??) --

No, I didn't, I had the same settings, 24/96. Ok, so if you're both from JRiver's developing team I'll just assume that that setting isn't supposed to do anything special other than just send a signal that I could also get by configuring the exact same settings without using the Audiophile 24 bit DAC option, and leave it to that. Thank you.

[csimon]

We're not on development team, just users of MC!  Although AndrewFG has "intimate" knowledge of MC due to other software he has developed.

[csimon]

I don't know (I'm not at a MC PC at the moment) but does selecting the Audiophile option change the conversion settings automatically?  You could try setting conversion to MP3 manually then select the Audiphile option again and see if it changes back to PCM24. So in that case you can just read off the current settings to see what it has done.

[EDIT: Actually, isn't the Audiophile option something that appears in the new DLNA server "wizard"? In which case, it won't change anything but will just add a new server with those settings. Just check that you haven't got any other server set up (MC allows multiple DLNA servers) that might be confusing things.]