[Napalmhardcore]

I realise that when using dedicated music playback software it is best to use ASIO/WASAPI to output your audio in its native state, however for general use I've just stumbled across something that has me confused.

Edit: I have a Sound Blaster Omni as well as a Modi Multibit. Both are being used over USB.

I went to check my playback settings as I've recently done a fresh install of Windows (due to some problems I was having with updates and certain software not installing). With my sound card, seeing how it only supports 48/96 KHz and 16-Bit/24-Bit, I've opted to use 24-Bit and 48 KHz (in my mind, less upsampling equals less aliasing). As I understand it, you are best to use your card/DAC's native bit depth regardless of what the source material is.

Where I'm confused is when it comes to the settings for the Modi, I thought Modi Multibit's native bit depth was 24-Bit, however when I open up the advanced tab, 32-Bit is available. Seeing how most of the time, when I'm browsing the internet I have Spotify playing in the background, so I have sample rate set to 44.1 KHz because I read somewhere that is the best sample rate to use with the majority of tracks on Spotify (I don't know if that's true).

So what sample rate should I use with the Modi? Should I use 32-Bit as it's available or should I be using 24-Bit as that is it's native bit depth according to Schiit's website?

 

[fianbarr]

I believe most music (with the exception of HD) on a pc is 16/44.1. So I would set the output to 16/44.1 and have the pc do no conversion on the signal but let the DAC decide.

 

[Napalmhardcore]

I believe most music (with the exception of HD) on a pc is 16/44.1. So I would set the output to 16/44.1 and have the pc do no conversion on the signal but let the DAC decide.

It is my understanding that if you run 16-Bit, you will negatively affect the playback of 24-Bit material. Allegedly there is no downside to playing back 16-Bit material into a 24-Bit DAC as it "Just gets padded with 0s" (from what I've read, not my own words) so there is no reason not to set it at 24-Bit.

As it happens, I found a discussion on Reddit that has answered my question about 32-Bit being displayed in the Modi's Windows settings. The Modi will apparently just convert it to 24-Bit anyway, so I've just set it to 24-Bit and 44.1 KHz.

I'm still curious to know what the optimal Windows settings for Spotify playback are. I'm also curious to know if upsampling to 96 KHz is worse that upsampling to 48 KHz if the source is 44.1 KHz. It would also be interesting to know if downsampling audio works in a similar way to video scaling. For example, with video, when you upscale, you introduce artifacts. When you downscale, you can actually improve perceived detail compared to running at native resolution.