[digital00101]

Hi folks!
 
So I have this Denon RCD-N7 Network Receiver, it plays 24/96 FLAC's,
but it does have an optical input, which they tell me the DAC supports up to 24/192. 
 
This is the scenario: 
 
I wish to connect my Mac to this optical input on the Denon. 
So on the computer side: What would I need to be able to transfer legitimately that 24/192 digital signal, to the optical input on the receiver?
 
Would the optical-out from the Mac, carry that digital signal to the Denon in that 24/192 format (provided the file is 24/192 of course)?
 
I wouldn't need a DAC coming out of the Mac, would I? 
It's just Ones and Ceros, right?
 
Any comments or ideas are much appreciated
 
Thanks in advance - Alex

 

[Roseval]

Optical (Toslink) is limited to 24/96, that is the standard.
On the Mac you have to set the sample rate manual, you can't set it > 96.
Any file > 96 will be down-sampled to this setting

 

[digital00101]

Toslink limited to 24/96??? Oh nooo!! The truth has come out! But they told me their DAC is capable of 24/192!! Why would they want to do something like that?
I guess I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a FLAC at 24/96 or 24/192 anyways. 
 
Does anyone know at what rate can Airplay stream? 24/48 maybe? Are there any specs on that?
Mountain Lion can now output sound to any Airplay capable device, so maybe I wouldn't need to use a toslink cable to play 24/96 FLAC content to the Denon. 
 
I have the feeling my only choice is to use that toslink cable.
 
Any good cheap USB soundcards with toslink output out there? Does quality matter?

 

[PleasantSounds]

Quote:

Optical (Toslink) is limited to 24/96, that is the standard.
On the Mac you have to set the sample rate manual, you can't set it > 96.
Any file > 96 will be down-sampled to this setting

 
Sorry but I'd like to get one thing clarified: when you're saying that Toslink is limited to 24/96, you mean that this is on the Mac, right? As far as I can tell, the S/PDIF standard limits only the bit depth to 24, but not the sampling rate.
 
I have been using 24/192 over Toslink on a PC, and while I can't say that it is audibly better than 24/96, it certainly is supported by some devices.

 

[Roseval]

Correct.
The Toslink standard (not to be mistaken for the SPDIF standard) says 96 kHz max and on OSX you can't configure it to do anything > 96
Using Win on an iMac you can set the Toslink to > 96 and it works.
Obvious todays Toslink hardware can perform in excess of the standard.

 

[Loquah]

After reading a great article about the merits of 96 vs 192kHz sampling, I am now a firm believer in 96 as a max output frequency. Unfortunately I don't remember where I found the article, but the general summary was that 192 is brilliant for recording, but potentially a downgrade for playback. This may have been a result of the extra load placed on the USB circuit from memory.

All-in-all, this means don't sweat being "stuck" with 96. That's great and you'd struggle to hear the difference.