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Most bullet-proof way to get 24/192Khz pure bit-perfect SPDIF output to HeadRoom DAC? - Page 2

post #16 of 20
3/22/07 at 2:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by schaqfu View Post
dougwx12: Yeah, I really like the Airport Express option too, with its optical out; the only problem is iTunes (as far as I have been able to tell) supports files at higher resolutions than the AE is capable of putting out -- basically I think the Airport is limited to 16 bit and maybe up to 48Khz, in which case I'm just as well off using the USB connection direct to my DAC anyway. But that's exactly the kind of setup I'm looking for, bit pure output; just need one that goes higher.
Hmm, well, I admit that I only use my APX's for 16/44 stereo. But, I know that it supports DTS streaming just fine, which I thought was much higher than your above limits by default. In fact, I don't think those rates mean anything until you hit a DAC?!? I was under the impression that it was a bit passthru at that point.

The AppleTV would also be an expensive version of the same, but I'd be shocked if the APX was different.
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post #17 of 20
4/8/07 at 12:21pm
I'll add a vote for the Airport Express. I could not find a solution that would get a bit-perfect stream from iTunes out of my laptop to a DAC via USB without pops and clicks in the music when I used the laptop for normal work, which was the whole point, of course.

A PCMCIA Firewire card (cheap, but I had one) and $200+ outboard device with a S/PDIF connector did solve the problem, but was too expensiveand too many more bulky parts and I didn't really have a spare PCMCIA port. Overkill.

At $100 plus an optical cable or adapter (depending on what you already have on hand), Airport Express and Airtunes is a huge improvement (I'm still evaluating whether it really is immune to stream interruption, but if I have to try to reproduce the problem then it's not really a problem for me). And it gets me wireless in my hotel room....
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post #18 of 20
4/8/07 at 11:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by schaqfu View Post
What's starting to confuse the hell out of me is all this talk of jitter and such in other forums -- if I can get all the 1s and 0s in bit perfect form to the DAC chip, why the hell would it matter what wire or anything else got them there? It's mathematical, not analogue, so nothing else should matter, right?
Once those 1's and 0's hit the dac it's the timing (jitter) that matters. Timing information for the DAC is normally extracted from the incoming signal. The conversion process is analogue and off timing will result in an inferior signal.
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post #19 of 20
4/8/07 at 11:49pm
be advised that the X-Fi can't do 24/192 digital output. At least mine won't accept 24/192 using ASIO output in foobar2000.

Another reason to require 24/96 or 24/192 would be vinyl transfers. I have a few (not telling where I got them so please don't ask)
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post #20 of 20
2/20/11 at 2:34pm

I've got a similar issue, but for me it's not hardware. I already have an M-Audio Delta Audiophile 192 soundcard. I need some simple user-friendly software (preferably freeware) that is capable of recording and playing 192kbps audio. I also would hope it would have a "spectrogram" display (brightness=intensity,x-axis=time,y-axis=frequency), but this isn't a necessity as I have another software that can generate a spectrogram from 192kbps audio (though it would be nice to have this functionality in the same software that can also record and play).

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