PleasantSounds
Headphoneus Supremus
Correct on the "padding".
Regarding what impact does it have on the DAC's working temperature, RF emissions or other side effects - I would expect that the 24-bit DACs do the "padding" internally on 16-bit streams just to have one uniform way of processing. So in the end exactly the same stream would be converted whether you send a 16-bit stream or padded to 24-bit.
Regarding what impact does it have on the DAC's working temperature, RF emissions or other side effects - I would expect that the 24-bit DACs do the "padding" internally on 16-bit streams just to have one uniform way of processing. So in the end exactly the same stream would be converted whether you send a 16-bit stream or padded to 24-bit.