[Letmebefrank]

but you would be using the onboard audio by doing this or am I wrong? is the digital signal bypassing the onboard audio by s/pdif?

As long as you turn off any effects or dsps it should be sending the bits over unchanged.

 

[Ancipital]

As long as you turn off any effects or dsps it should be sending the bits over unchanged.

 
Once you do, it's worth sticking some tone sweeps through, just to check that everything's set correctly.

 

[mourip]

I just received my new Modi multibit. I am running Windows 10 and so tried to install the drivers provided on the Schiit web site. I could not get them to install, at least I thought so, but oddly I eventually found them installed. I also tried installing the Schiit ASIO drivers but got an error that the install did not support my OS. Same thing happened however. In JMRC I found an entry for "ASIO for Generic USB Device".
 
On my office PC I am using JMRC to play 24/96 and 24/192 files to a 24/192 capable DAC via USB. I am using ASIO in JRMC.  I am seeing this "error"-"Not using enough bits to output the input directly" and it says that my 24/96 file is playing at 16/96. 

WASAPI does not get this error but I like the sound of ASIO more. Any ideas?
 

 

[pkcpga]

I just received my new Modi multibit. I am running Windows 10 and so tried to install the drivers provided on the Schiit web site. I could not get them to install, at least I thought so, but oddly I eventually found them installed. I also tried installing the Schiit ASIO drivers but got an error that the install did not support my OS. Same thing happened however. In JMRC I found an entry for "ASIO for Generic USB Device".

[COLOR=333333]On my office PC I am using JMRC to play 24/96 and 24/192 files to a 24/192 capable [/COLOR]DAC[COLOR=333333] via [/COLOR]USB[COLOR=333333]. I am using ASIO in JRMC.  [/COLOR][COLOR=333333]I am seeing this "error"-"Not using enough bits to output the input directly" and it says that my 24/96 file is playing at 16/96. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]WASAPI does not get this error but I like the sound of ASIO more. Any ideas?[/COLOR]

The DAC is only 16 bit so it does not play 24 bit no schiit DAC plays at 24 bit. Read previous posts, plenty of people explain how schiit down samples the files or "filters the files".

 

[theveterans]

 The DAC is only 16 bit so it does not play 24 bit no schiit DAC plays at 24 bit. Read previous posts, plenty of people explain how schiit down samples the files or "filters the files".

 
Schiit plays any 24-bit 192 KHz file out there, without oversampling to boot! except for Yggy which oversamples to 384 KHz. Heck Schiit's burrito oversamples the bitrate to 32 bits before filtering.

 

[mourip]

   
Schiit plays any 24-bit 192 KHz file out there, without oversampling to boot! except for Yggy which oversamples to 384 KHz. Heck Schiit's burrito oversamples the bitrate to 32 bits before filtering.

 
Agreed but I am still confused as to why JMRC seems to be putting out 16 bit. Perhaps we are talking about two different ideas?
 
From their web site...
 
"Modi 2 Multibit: 16/44.1 to 24/192 via USB. 16/44.1 to 24/192 via Toslink* and Coax, with 24/176 and 24/192 being NOS (non-oversampled)"

 

[NikonGuy]

,,

 

[jnak00]

I've read a few times that in order to get the best sound quality out of an outboard DAC, one should turn the system and application volume all the way.  If I do this, I can't turn my Magni volume low enough - I hit the channel imbalance zone at the very bottom of the dial.  Is it necessary to turn the software volumes all the way up?  If it is, I might have to get a SYS to temper the volume before it hits the Magni....which seems like a strange compromise.

 

[Letmebefrank]

I've read a few times that in order to get the best sound quality out of an outboard DAC, one should turn the system and application volume all the way.  If I do this, I can't turn my Magni volume low enough - I hit the channel imbalance zone at the very bottom of the dial.  Is it necessary to turn the software volumes all the way up?  If it is, I might have to get a SYS to temper the volume before it hits the Magni....which seems like a strange compromise.

Check out this article. It explains that even at -48 dB you are only losing 8 bits of dynamic range, meaning when you have a 32 bit sound processor like foobar2k, you still get all 24 bits of audio to send to the dac, just with a higher noise floor.

 

[jnak00]

Check out this article. It explains that even at -48 dB you are only losing 8 bits of dynamic range, meaning when you have a 32 bit sound processor like foobar2k, you still get all 24 bits of audio to send to the dac, just with a higher noise floor.

Thanks for the article.  I mainly use Tidal lossless, which I assume is 16 bit, so -48 dB would be losing half the audio? 

 

[Letmebefrank]

Thanks for the article.  I mainly use Tidal lossless, which I assume is 16 bit, so -48 dB would be losing half the audio? 

It depends on your dac, with the modi multibit it's a 24 bit dac, so you would still have all 16 bits after the -48dB. I think foobar volume control only goes to -30dB, and that's 5 bits of dynamic range, since each bit is 6dB.

 

[Ancipital]

  Good point, what would be the best way of doing this?

 
I don't know about best way, but a cheap and easy way for Windows users is to use Foobar2000's internal tone generator. Beware that the tone generator has its own sample rate configuration option, so you need to check that is correct, too.
 
To use it, go to the playlist in Foobar, do "add location" and add something like:
 

sweep://20,20000,60

 
which is a 20-20kHz sweep over a minute- you may prefer something slower, over less frequency, perhaps- but you get the idea. Remember that you can right-click on entries on the playlist and choose to convert it- so you could write any of those entries out as a FLAC/WAV etc. if you want to play it on another device.
 
Alternatively, you can wait until later, when I get home- I'm pretty sure that I have a playlist with some tones and sweeps already set up, which I could post.
 
Generally, if there's something in the chain doing sample rate conversion, you'll probably hear some funny aliasing as it sweeps.
 
Edit: Here you go, a simple playlist with some tones and a couple of sweeps:
 
  

 

[duncan4791]

  I just received my new Modi multibit. I am running Windows 10 and so tried to install the drivers provided on the Schiit web site. I could not get them to install, at least I thought so, but oddly I eventually found them installed. I also tried installing the Schiit ASIO drivers but got an error that the install did not support my OS. Same thing happened however. In JMRC I found an entry for "ASIO for Generic USB Device".
 
On my office PC I am using JMRC to play 24/96 and 24/192 files to a 24/192 capable DAC via USB. I am using ASIO in JRMC.  I am seeing this "error"-"Not using enough bits to output the input directly" and it says that my 24/96 file is playing at 16/96. 

WASAPI does not get this error but I like the sound of ASIO more. Any ideas?

 
Go to the JRMC Playback Options/Audio Device/Device Settings/ASIO for Generic USB Device [ASIO] Panel and press "Open Driver Control Panel" in the lower right Output block. This pops up the ASIO Control Panel where you can set the bit depth and latency. Set it to 24 bit and save. The audio path will now report 24 bits out over ASIO.
 
This sets the ASIO driver for foobar as well.

 

[ColtMrFire]

It depends on your dac, with the modi multibit it's a 24 bit dac, so you would still have all 16 bits after the -48dB. I think foobar volume control only goes to -30dB, and that's 5 bits of dynamic range, since each bit is 6dB.

From what I hear, no dac uses 24 actual bits of information. I'm not sure how that impacts digital volume control though and maybe someone can set the record straight. Jnak00 is probably better off just emailing Schiit for a straight answer.

 

[mourip]

   
Go to the JRMC Playback Options/Audio Device/Device Settings/ASIO for Generic USB Device [ASIO] Panel and press "Open Driver Control Panel" in the lower right Output block. This pops up the ASIO Control Panel where you can set the bit depth and latency. Set it to 24 bit and save. The audio path will now report 24 bits out over ASIO.
 
This sets the ASIO driver for foobar as well.

 
Bingo! Thanks so much...