Usb DAC on macbook air won't go above 16bit/48khz

[nissen22]

The Air definetly supports digital out. Have you tried switching to it in "audio MIDI setup," or can't you find it there either?

 

[EarthToTommy]

Can't solve your USB problem... but, if you have a new MAC, the headphone output is also an optical out. You can get a TOSLINK cable that goes from the audio out to the optical input of your DAC - this should unlock the full capabilities of your DAC.

 

[calex003]

Hey Guys,
I am faced pretty much with the same problem as you. I own a Zeppelin Air by B&W, which contains a dedicated DAC itself, with encodes in 96kHz/24 bit. When I connect it to my MacBookPro, the Audio-Midi-Setup won't let me put the sampling rate above 48kHz (and 16-bit). So does Audirvana. I am pretty sure that the Zeppelin does 96kHz over ALL inputs, since it upsamples every input to 96kHz/24 bit. Furthermore I can clearly tell that the MacBookPro handles highres audio over USB. When I connect my Resonessence Labs Herus which does pretty much every format available, the Mac is able to set sampling rate up to DXD (352,8 kHz).
So, since we are all sure that our DACs handle more than 48kHz/16 bit and I can proof, the Mac is able to handle it ... any clue what's going on here?
 
Thanks for your support, I hope I was helpful pointing out the Mac abilities

 

[nissen22]

  Can't solve your USB problem... but, if you have a new MAC, the headphone output is also an optical out. You can get a TOSLINK cable that goes from the audio out to the optical input of your DAC - this should unlock the full capabilities of your DAC.

Macbook Air doesn't have optical out :/ My pc does, but it also has a very noisy fan and is therefore not optimal for music

 

[junkscience]

Problem Solved:
The solution to the problem in connecting an external DAC to a MacBook Pro Mac OS X  to pass the high resolution (hi rez) file at 24/96 audio out via the USB to the DAC:
 
"The trick is to set 24/96 for output, but 16/96 for input. It seems that OS X reserves the bandwidth on the UBS chain for input, even though the DAC will never use it"
 
More here:
http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=pcaudio&m=143708

 

[Currawong]

Another one I found: Make sure the bit depth is set to 24 bit before trying to set the sample rate. OSX wont allow high sample rates at 16 bit.