[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by castigar /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm asking because the DACs I'm considering only have up to 16/48 for USB input, but 24/96 for optical and SPDIF. Also, the DACs I'm considering don't upsample at all, so why would they take the 16/44.1 and upsample it to 24/96? Maybe I'm not understanding this correctly?

Check out my response to him two posts up, and then my response to you one post up.

 

[elwappo99]

Anyway... a little side track,

castigar, the little dot DAC_1 doesn't get much attention, but the dac itself is really top notch. I'm very very fond of it. It's warm and detailed. Read up on it a bit.

 

[ford2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by elwappo99 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Anyway... a little side track, castigar, the little dot DAC_1 doesn't get much attention, but the dac itself is really top notch. I'm very very fond of it. It's warm and detailed. Read up on it a bit.

It is indeed warm and detailed.

 

[shane55]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif /facepalm Changing it from 16 to 24 bits should NOT change anything. It'll just add 0s to the other 8 bits. That's just insanely confusing. And no, if you send 16/44.1 out to the DAC is won't always upconvert it. Infact, few DACs upsample. Most OVERsample. But that's something different.

Hybrys... you are correct.
I was obviously confused and typing absolute nonsense. Apologies all around, especially to the OP.

DAC's = digital to analog converter. Not sure what I was thinking. Maybe too good of a time Saturday night left me a bit groggy this morning.

shane

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

@ OP.

Both the devices you mention in the OP use the same DAC chip. The ubiquitous Wolfson WM8740. I just looked it up.

So you can buy either depending on other concerns than the impact of the DAC itself.

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RonaldDumsfeld /img/forum/go_quote.gif @ OP. Both the devices you mention in the OP use the same DAC chip. The ubiquitous Wolfson WM8740. I just looked it up. So you can buy either depending on other concerns than the impact of the DAC itself.

...What? One upsamples and the other two don't?

This thread is special in a special way. OP, I'd recommend the Little Dot DAC-I. You can resample in software later, if you want to.

 

[castigar]

First off, thanks everybody for the helpful comments, I really appreciate it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...What? One upsamples and the other two don't? This thread is special in a special way. OP, I'd recommend the Little Dot DAC-I. You can resample in software later, if you want to.

The thing is, I currently run 4 operating systems on 2 computers: Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux 10.04, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

I use foobar2000 on the 2 Windows installs, so I'm sure I can easily set it to upsample if I wanted to. It's the other 2 operating systems I'm worried about, as I've Googled around, but haven't found anything substantial or not outdated.

If anyone knows sure and easy ways to upsample in OS X or Ubuntu, then please let me know! I'm only considering the DacMagic because if I don't know how to upsample in a non-Windows OS, it's much more convenient that it does it for me automatically. Granted, I would also not get to turn off the upsampling...

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by castigar /img/forum/go_quote.gif First off, thanks everybody for the helpful comments, I really appreciate it! The thing is, I currently run 4 operating systems on 2 computers: Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux 10.04, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I use foobar2000 on the 2 Windows installs, so I'm sure I can easily set it to upsample if I wanted to. It's the other 2 operating systems I'm worried about, as I've Googled around, but haven't found anything substantial or not outdated. If anyone knows sure and easy ways to upsample in OS X or Ubuntu, then please let me know! I'm only considering the DacMagic because if I don't know how to upsample in a non-Windows OS, it's much more convenient that it does it for me automatically. Granted, I would also not get to turn off the upsampling...

In OSX, you just change the outgoing options, IE: the Audio MIDI settings. You can select to output up to 24/96 via a Mac's 3.5mm optical out.

In Ubuntu, I'm unsure because I haven't used it in a while, BUT, I'd assume it's the same. Find the sound card's options, and set it to whichever sample size you want.

It's only in Windows that you really have to worry about ASIO/KS/WASAPI, that's why the resampling methods are different. (Technically, you can have Windows resample in the same way, but it's a very inefficient method.)