[Fralle]

I have a 32 bit DAC built in my integrated. But I also got a smaller USB dac with limits of 24 bit. When I’m using Asio4all and upsampling set to x2 Audirvana will send the it out as 32 bits. I have to use Wasapi to get it to work right.

Just out of curiosity. Will feeding 32 bit to a 24 bit DAC actually do anything to affect the sound negatively? Cause Iv’e been flipping back and fourth now and I’m not really sure if I can hear any difference at all.

 

[castleofargh]

32bit signal into a 24bit DAC doesn't work. In bit perfect streaming I think you should get no music and maybe some warning. If you get sound, most likely the actual signal goes out as 16 or 24bit, or there is something somewhere smart enough to adjust the bit depth when "talking" to the 24bit DAC.

24bit is already more than any DAC can effectively resolve, so you really don't have to worry about the sound when your music is "only" sent as 24bit.

 

[Fralle]

Right!? But isn't it weird that it actually does work? It sends out 32 bit and the sound is there but the DAC is 24 bit. This only happens when usin asio4all in Audirvana. Using Wasapi it is sent out according to the specs of the DAC. But this 32 bit nonsense should not affect the sound in the end right? Cause I prefer to use Asio.

 

[Roseval]

Sending 32 to a 24 bit DAC won't work as per post #2
If it does work using asio4all either
- somewhere under the hood 32 is truncated to 24
- the DAC (the chip doing the DA) is 24 bit but the USB receiver accepts 32, the truncation happens in the USB receiver.

 

[Dawnrazor]

I have a 32 bit DAC built in my integrated. But I also got a smaller USB dac with limits of 24 bit. When I’m using Asio4all and upsampling set to x2 Audirvana will send the it out as 32 bits. I have to use Wasapi to get it to work right.

Just out of curiosity. Will feeding 32 bit to a 24 bit DAC actually do anything to affect the sound negatively? Cause Iv’e been flipping back and fourth now and I’m not really sure if I can hear any difference at all.

Agree with everyone else. My software player only outputs 32bit and my digital out device has a select for 16, 24, and 32 bit. When its playing and I go into the software and switch to 24bit it all stops playing and I have to reboot the device and select 32 bit for it to start playing again

 

[gregorio]

If it does work using asio4all either
- somewhere under the hood 32 is truncated to 24
- the DAC (the chip doing the DA) is 24 bit but the USB receiver accepts 32, the truncation happens in the USB receiver.

There cannot be a truncation from 32 to 24 process occurring. With 24bit into 16bit, the last 8 bits can truncated because both 24bit and 16bit are fixed but 32bit is a float value: The first bit is a sign bit, the next 8 bits are for the exponent and the remaining 23bits for the mantissa. So, if you just hacked off the 8 LSBs and treated the remaining 24bits as a 24bit fixed value, you'd be reading the sign and exponent bits as the 9 most significant (audio) bits and end up with complete garbage. So 32bit (float) has to be converted into 24bit (fixed) not simply truncated.

To the OP: The effect of converting 32bit to 24bit will occur roughly 100 times below what your speakers or HPs are even able to reproduce. So it obviously can't "do anything to affect the sound".

G