My question is kind of vague, but I've been puzzled for a long time.

Setup: I have a PowerBook G4 connected to a Firewire Audiophile, which feeds coaxial SPDIF to an Apogee Mini-DAC.

For some reason, the same files played on the computer (with iTunes, all sound options off; or Cog player) just doesn't seem to sound as good as using the Toshiba 3960 DVD player feeding the mini-dac. Same for CDs and Mp3/mp3-CDs. At least I can tell that they certainly don't sound the same, the Toshiba generally has a richer sound.

I thought of the possibility that the digital out of AF is not bit-perfect, but I don't know how to test it. I found some .wav DTS files Here but I no matter how I play it there's only static. I think I might just be testing it the wrong way...?

It just seems unlikely that the digital out of AF is much worse than the Toshiba's digital out... can anyone offer an explanation/solution or a better test?

Have been getting grunge, barely audible and distorted, from coax out of M-Audio Delta 192.

Company tech support responded to email once, two days later, with request for more information (stated in way it was obvious they had not read my original email).

I tried again and have not heard for four days.

Analog output of card works great and this is a fine card, but COMPANY SUPPORT IS NONEXISTANT. Like one of my recent buys from China, but this is USA I'm writing to.

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mmh... write in English to the German support if there are any problems: They helped me a lot with my multiple m-audios (DIOs, APs), including my psu-problems.

cheers, Andreas

I'm not complaining about my unit, you know... I'm worried that I'm not getting the best sound out of my gears.

Does anyone know a way to tell if my DAC is being fed bit-perfect signals or not?

Double click the speaker icon in the taskbar and slide the main control and wave control all the way to the top, while turning the knob on the amp down to compensate.
By doing so, you'll use more bits of your DAC. If you get clipping, turn the controls down until it's gone.
Also try starting the DAC before the PC and vice versa. S/PDIF is sometimes sensitive to power supply sequencing. I actually have to uncheck and recheck the S/PDIF enable in the volume control app every time I power up my amp/DAC to get it to work. But hey, I don't mind a very slight annoyance for better quality...

Have you tried updating the Audiophile drivers for your version of Mac OS X? iTunes upsamples to 96KHz while VLC doesn't.

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Yeah the driver is updated.

That reminds me, before I started trying out different sample rate settings in "Audio Midi Setup" utility, VLC forces AF to sync to the sample rate of the files I play. Like when I open mp3's with VLC, the sample rate jump to 44.1; when I play some .avi files with 48k rates the AF also resync to 48k. Don't know since when, it doesn't do that anymore. Even if the files are 48k, AF outputs whatever rate set in the Audio Midi Setup.

Alright I received my Edirol UA-1EX USB soundcard. I'm using its mini-Toslink to feed the DAC, while the AF is on coax. I assume that if there's nothing wrong with either, then they should sound the same? I'll be listening for a while, but meanwhile if anyone has suggestions/ideas please chime in.

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My experience is the opposite. VLC overwrites the rate set in Audio Midi Setup (how is this possible?). iTunes is in sync with the Midi setting.