[Ksweene5]

Hello Head-Fi - 
 
I believe I have finally settled on a portable DAC/Amp. I have files running the gamut of bitrate - including a lot at 24-bits. I will listen to these on my android phone and windows laptop. 
 
The DAC/Amp I'm looking is exclusively 16-bit. Will my files of different bitrates still playback with the DAC? 
- and, if so , would that entail sacrificing the quality of my music files?
 
Thanks in advance

 

[cel4145]

If a DAC says it can only play certain bit rates and sampling rates, it can only play those bit rates and sampling rates.

You'll have to find another if you want to play those files.

 

[obobskivich]

If a DAC says it can only play certain bit rates and sampling rates, it can only play those bit rates and sampling rates.

You'll have to find another if you want to play those files.

+1. The only "exception" here is if the transport (e.g. a PC) can resample the audio for the DAC. For example a lot of soundcards have no trouble converting 24-bit to 16-bit (or vice versa) at the output. I'm not sure if this is something a mobile phone can easily do though. Quality loss is debatable - technically you're giving up information if you're dithering, but whether or not you will notice (or notice enough to care) is where it gets a bit more contentious. I would agree with finding a 24-bit capable DAC though - shouldn't be too hard to do these days.

 

[Ksweene5]

Thank you both for the info. I had gathered it may not be an issue while using a PC, but I also use mobile a lot. The DAC I was looking at was an RSA. I would rather avoid any issues and just choose a DAC with maximum compatibility. Most of my files are HQ downloads included with vinyl purchases, so I don't have much choice for file types. 
 
I'm now leaning towards the iBasso D-14. Thanks again

 

[obobskivich]

I don't have a lot of experience with mobile devices (as in phones/tablets), but doesn't Fiio make some compact thing that can plug into some mobile devices as well as PCs?

 

[tomb]

I can't speak for the other things mentioned, but Foobar 2000 as a music player on your laptop can downrate 24-bit on the fly while streaming the music.  They still sound better than 16 bit FLAC files through a 16-bit DAC.
 
There's quite a bit of literature out there that makes the case for 16-bit, 44.1kHz as the maximum quality possible through playback.  Recording is a different story entirely, which is why the 24-bit, higher-sampling rate files still sound better played back as 16-bit, 44.1kHz.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  I can't speak for the other things mentioned, but Foobar 2000 as a music player on your laptop can downrate 24-bit on the fly while streaming the music.  They still sound better than 16 bit FLAC files through a 16-bit DAC.
 
There's quite a bit of literature out there that makes the case for 16-bit, 44.1kHz as the maximum quality possible through playback.  Recording is a different story entirely, which is why the 24-bit, higher-sampling rate files still sound better played back as 16-bit, 44.1kHz.

 
They sound better if a better master was used. If the same master was used, they sound the same.

 

[Ksweene5]

I realize the 16 bit will give me all I need as far as HQ. I just didn't want to have to reformat my collection down to 16bit.

Does anyone know if Android is capable of down conversion on the fly?

Like I mentioned, I generally don't choose which file types I download - it's whatever the label/artist decide to make available.

 

[RRod]

I realize the 16 bit will give me all I need as far as HQ. I just didn't want to have to reformat my collection down to 16bit.

Does anyone know if Android is capable of down conversion on the fly?

Like I mentioned, I generally don't choose which file types I download - it's whatever the label/artist decide to make available.

 
People seem to like Neutron player for Android, which seems to do what you need (dither 24bit down to 16bit). Haven't tried it myself, but there's a possibility. Since your hardware can't handle 24bits, you need either the media player or the audio server to handle the conversion.

 

[Ksweene5]

That looks like a great app, and I think you're right about down conversion using it.

I spend a lot of time using Spotify HQ streaming also. Does anyone know which bitrate(s) Spotify uses? I believe their streaming is via vorbis. What I read seemed to indicate it's 16/24 depending I what they've been given.

Are dacs finicky about being connected to a transport which is down converting?

With what seems like a lot of "unknowns" about my ability to pay everything into a 16-bit dac it makes me think I should cover all the bases. Initially this issue is why I was focused in on the iBasso D-14 or Oppo ha-2.

I appreciate all the insight, I feel like I'm out in the weeds on this one. If you have any other recs for portable, cover all, dac/amps let me know

 

[Music Alchemist]

If you're puttin' 'em on a portable device, might as well convert to 256 kbps AAC (sounds the same as lossless) to fit more music. (And use the original files on your computer.)

 

[RRod]

That looks like a great app, and I think you're right about down conversion using it.

I spend a lot of time using Spotify HQ streaming also. Does anyone know which bitrate(s) Spotify uses? I believe their streaming is via vorbis. What I read seemed to indicate it's 16/24 depending I what they've been given.

Are dacs finicky about being connected to a transport which is down converting?

With what seems like a lot of "unknowns" about my ability to pay everything into a 16-bit dac it makes me think I should cover all the bases. Initially this issue is why I was focused in on the iBasso D-14 or Oppo ha-2.

I appreciate all the insight, I feel like I'm out in the weeds on this one. If you have any other recs for portable, cover all, dac/amps let me know

 
Don't confuse bit depth (16/24/32 bits) with bit rate (192/256/320kbps). I'm not sure what Spotify uses either way.
 
All the DAC cares about is it's getting a format it knows and loves. My E-MU, for instance, ONLY wants 24 bits, so the audio server makes sure to pad 8 zeroes onto 16-bit data before sending it to the DAC.

 

[Ksweene5]

That's spot on, I am primarily concerned with the bit depth. Do most users here reformat their digital files to all be of the same depth/rate?

 

[Music Alchemist]

Do most users here reformat their digital files to all be of the same depth/rate?

 
I think most of us leave everything as-is. (Though if I used a portable player, that would be a different story.)

 

[obobskivich]

That's spot on, I am primarily concerned with the bit depth. Do most users here reformat their digital files to all be of the same depth/rate?

If coming from a computer, SRC (sample-rate conversion) is necessary no matter what - the system can only output at a fixed rate to the DAC, so anything that doesn't match will be converted to match. So even if you set it at 16/44.1 for CD playback, it has to have a way to handle 16/48 or 24/48 sounds without unlocking and relocking the DAC every time (e.g. it wants to play some system sound, or you're playing a game, or talking on skype and watching netflix at once, etc) - so it performs SRC (and with modern software and soundcards this is basically transparent). If coming from a more traditional transport/player (e.g. an SACD player) it will be fixed to the media through to output. I'm sure there are some who switch settings on their computers when changing filetypes, but that still won't get around other sounds the computer needs to play being SRC'd at some point (e.g. it may be setup to be optimal for the music during playback, but that may require SRC of other sounds at some point).

Like tomb said, there's a lot of literature on computer audio and digital audio, and at least as many differing opinions of what's best.