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[Blaine78]

Hello,

Is there any way to manually choose 16bit output in ASIO options from JRiver? Even via a registry edit?  I have a Metrum acoustics Musette DAC that has 16 bit NOS DAC chips, but through ASIO in JRiver it's sending 32bit. WASAPI has the 16bit option in JRiver output and it works, but ASIO does not. Would be wonderful if able to dither this down to 16 bit for this DAC to operate at its peak.

[JimH]

The ASIO driver is normally provided by the manufacturer.  The connection to it may be 32 bit.  The files played may not be.  That's normal.

[Blaine78]

I'm asking for a dithering option to 16 bit, JRiver only has an option for 24 bit dither via ASIO. Roon and other audio programs do.

[Hendrik]

The 24-bit option exists because its common for ASIO to accept/require a 32-bit transport format for 24-bit audio (because 4 bytes/32-bit is often nicer to handle due to being a power of two). 16-bit usually does not have that problem. It would be up to the ASIO driver to request the proper bitdepth matching the hardware.

[RD James]

ASIO typically operates with a 32-bit connection whether the device is 32-bit or not, so that is not unexpected.
Everything that I can find on this DAC says that it's a 24-bit 384kHz converter.
You should always output the maximum bit-depth supported by your DAC. Doing this is not upconversion/upsampling.
If the source is 16-bit it would be padded to 24-bit or 32-bit with zeroes, which does not alter the audio data.
 
You should also be aware that NOS DACs are designed to move the upsampling process outside of the DAC, not to avoid upsampling altogether and play back audio at the track's native sample rate.
If you send them a low sample-rate signal, like 44.1kHz, you're going to get a lot of nasty aliasing on playback. I'd recommend upsampling everything to 384kHz.

[Blaine78]

I think you guys are talking about truncating bits. This request is for dithering to 16 bit, which JRiver does not do in ASIO, only 24 bit.

[ferday]

DTS is normally 16/48....what are your source bitrates?

the signal is not actually 32 bits (as mentioned).  it's actually source bitrate, padded to 32 on DAC request. 

[Blaine78]

the DAC is 16 bit. it has 16 bit DAC chips. JRiver does NOT allow for 16 bit dithering, and all processing is left at 32 bit output, so 32 bit will be truncated to 16 bit, which is not the correct way to go about digital audio. Anyone who has an understanding of digital audio will know this.

[RD James]

the DAC is 16 bit. it has 16 bit DAC chips. JRiver does NOT allow for 16 bit dithering, and all processing is left at 32 bit output, so 32 bit will be truncated to 16 bit, which is not the correct way to go about digital audio. Anyone who has an understanding of digital audio will know this.

Sorry, everything I found by searching for that DAC's name said it was a 24-bit 384kHz DAC.
Media Center can dither to any bit-depth you want, if you enable the Bit-Depth simulator in the Parametric EQ DSP and move it to the very last position. Make sure that you have TPDF dither selected.
 
I do think it would be useful to expand the dithering options, as the bit-depth simulator means using up one of the two PEQ slots, but I'm not sure that it's an area that the JRiver team want to touch.

[Manfred]

Depends on the Manufactor of she soundcard and the provided ASIO driver.

The ASIO driver of the Assus STX II offers the option to select 16 or 24 bit under Options->Audio->Device Settings->Open Driver Control Panel.

If you don't find that option under Open Driver Control Panel than your ASIO driver does not support to choose 16 or 24 bit.

[Blaine78]

Sorry, everything I found by searching for that DAC's name said it was a 24-bit 384kHz DAC.
Media Center can dither to any bit-depth you want, if you enable the Bit-Depth simulator in the Parametric EQ DSP and move it to the very last position. Make sure that you have TPDF dither selected.
 
I do think it would be useful to expand the dithering options, as the bit-depth simulator means using up one of the two PEQ slots, but I'm not sure that it's an area that the JRiver team want to touch.

Sorry. the Chips ARE 16 bit NOS, but CAN accept modern 24, even 32 bit input (without dithering). Please do more research on this DAC.

[Blaine78]

Depends on the Manufactor of she soundcard and the provided ASIO driver.

The ASIO driver of the Assus STX II offers the option to select 16 or 24 bit under Options->Audio->Device Settings->Open Driver Control Panel.

If you don't find that option under Open Driver Control Panel than your ASIO driver does not support to choose 16 or 24 bit.

it CAN be selected with 16 bit via driver, BUT WITHOUT dithering as that is upto the audio software to do. like the audio software Roon, it allows you to choose 16 bit and took no time at all for them to implement after a request.  EVEN windows mixer allows for 16 or 24 bit. Dithering is best, not truncating which JRiver is doing with this DAC.