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Author Topic: Audio Path Output only 16bit  (Read 2409 times)

Odisyus

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Audio Path Output only 16bit
« on: March 24, 2014, 08:28:27 pm »

Hello All.  I just noticed when checking the Audio Path in MC19 that, regardless of the file being played, I only seem to be getting 16bit output.  Any ideas?  Thanks

Example:

Input: 96kHz 24 bit 2ch from source format FLAC

Changes: No changes are being made

Output: 96kHz 16bit 2ch using ASIO (not enough bits to output the input directly)

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Odisyus

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Re: Audio Path Output only 16bit
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2014, 10:01:35 pm »

Hello All.  I just noticed when checking the Audio Path in MC19 that, regardless of the file being played, I only seem to be getting 16bit output.  Any ideas?  Thanks

Example:

Input: 96kHz 24 bit 2ch from source format FLAC

Changes: No changes are being made

Output: 96kHz 16bit 2ch using ASIO (not enough bits to output the input directly)



So, I found the ASIO Control Panel from inside MC: Tools->Options->Audio->Open Driver Control Panel...

That opens the ASIO Control Panel dialogue box which has two settings: Bit-Depth and Latency.  Bit-Depth was set at "16/16".  Latency was set at "10ms".  So, I changed the Bit Depth setting to "24/24" (the other available setting was "32/32") and now MC shows the output, from the example given in original posting above, as: 96kHz 24bit 2ch using ASIO (direct connection).

The other effect of this config change is that all output is now showing 24bit - even for 16bit files.  The same happens if I set the Bit-Depth to 32bit; all output shows as 32bit regardless of the original file bit-depth.

Best to leave it at 24bit?  (I have no 32bit files.)  Any reason why the ASIO driver shouldn't just output the original bit-depth for a file?

Thanks
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Hendrik

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Re: Audio Path Output only 16bit
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2014, 02:55:12 am »

The bitdepth of ASIO is always dictated by the ASIO driver itself, MC cannot change it - you need to set it in the drivers control panel, like you did.

There is usually absolutely no downside in using a higher bitdepth for output, so you should be perfectly fine using 24 for everything (or even 32 if thats what your DAC accepts)
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Odisyus

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Re: Audio Path Output only 16bit
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2014, 10:02:37 am »

The bitdepth of ASIO is always dictated by the ASIO driver itself, MC cannot change it - you need to set it in the drivers control panel, like you did.

There is usually absolutely no downside in using a higher bitdepth for output, so you should be perfectly fine using 24 for everything (or even 32 if thats what your DAC accepts)

Makes sense. Thanks for the response.  

The DAC is a Woo Audio WDS-1.  The Woo product manual states that the sampling rate is "Up To 24-Bit".  OTOH, the chipset is the TI PCM1795 which features 32bit resolution.  It works when setting the driver to 32bit; not sure if it matters.  I'll probably ping the Woo folks for some input as well.

Interestingly, I've had the unit for a few weeks now and I guess I've, unknowingly, been listening to my high res downloads (i.e., 24bit) truncated to 16bit (the Woo displays the sampling rate but not the bit depth).  If that's the case, I guess I have a whole new listening experience ahead of me!  Thanks again.
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CAPS v3 Topanga / JRiver MC27 | Synology 218+ NAS | SOtM sms-200 neo | iFi iUSB Power | Wyred4Sound DAC 2v2SE | Odyssey Khartago Extreme | Magnepan 1.7s
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