[plonter]

Hi all.
Just got a new Dragonfly, and I am using it with foobar and wasapi.   but something strange, It seems that the Dragonfly doesn't accept 16 bit , only 24 bit.
First ,In the windows 7 configuration window , in the shared mode default format it only give 3 options:  24/44 , 24/48, 24/96..  no 16 bit options.     
and when trying to play in foobar through wasapi in 16 bit I get an error:  Unsupported file format ....  or something similar.  But when forcing it to 24 bit than it plays fine.  
 
what is going on ?      All my music is 16 bit cd quality and I want to play it in its original bit depth.
Please help me to figure this one out. 
Thx.

 

[Roseval]

It is very simple.
A DAC (the chip doing the DA conversion) has a fixed word length
It is 16 or 24 or 32.
Most of the time it is 24 with today’s DACs.
As it is a USB DAC it will tell its properties to Win. Hence in the audio panel you see 24 bits as it won’t work with other bit depths
When you use WASAPI, it sends the audio as is to the DAC. As the DAC is 24, it won’t play if you send 16 bits only, it needs 24.
BTW: to play 16 bit on a 24 DAC all that is needed is padding 8 zero bits.
This won’t alter sound quality.

 

[plonter]

Thank you for your input.   so I will leave it like this if I have no choice.
But my HIFImeDIY USB DAC which also have the same sabre chip inside (ES9023), can accept 16 bit with no problem, and also capable of doing 24... so its fixed word length is 16 bit then?  
I am just a little confused.

 

[plonter]

And another thing.. In the audioquest site (also in others' reviews) this symptom doesn't get mentioned.  they say it can accept from 16/44/1  up to 24/96.