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Macmini as sources, with a dac, 24 or 32 bitrate is better?


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Good Evening,

i need your help guys, i have purchased a Teac DAC the ud501 and when i go to the midi interface, all i see is 44 to 384 rate and 24 bit or 32. Since i have mostly red book stuf in my librairie, what will be the proper set-up. i usualy, use 44/16, but 16 is not available anymore with the teac. So should i go to the roof with 384 or stay at 44/24 or 44/32?

Also i am plannig to go Ayre QB-9, will it be a good choice or a mistake? if i listen mostly redbook or itunes purchases?

Any help/infos is welcome

Regards

PS, if i'm in the wrong section, please indicate, where should i post my question?

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I'm not sure that I completely understand your question, but if your talking about re-ripping your audio collection to a new format for your new DAC I can tell you that it appears that 24bit 192kHZ FLAC or WAV seems to be taking over as the new standard.

Edited by Analog 2000
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Ok, since i install the dac, the only depth i see is 24 and 32, no more 16 depth, and i don't know if i should use 24 or 32? or what to do to get the 16depth again(macmini)?

Also, i could place the midi to 384, that done, will have the macmini convert all file before sending them to the dac? is it good or bad? not bit perfect, am i right?

I have read(Ayre and puremusic) on bit perfect, set up, and dedicated my usb in macmini(as described by Ayre) to be stand alone with the dac high speed USB and did so for the hardrive and it improved the sound a lot (more softness and less harsch).

Now i am trying to find the best sample rate and depth for the dac. I have try to set up to the original red book 16 depth and 44khz sample rate (as prescribed by Ayre, but no 16depth anymore).

I have read that 88.2khz or 352khz sample rate is best (puremusic) set up for red book, but since it is the macmini who do the math, not the dac, is it a good thing, and also i have to chose between 24 or 32 depth, no more 16 depth (that part, i don't understand).

I have try puremusic, who pretend to upgraded the sound to 384 but recommanded for redbook CD ripping, to be in 88khz or 352 for better sound.

Also enhanced software: bitperfect or puremusic and what is your best recommanded setup for those software? and macmini setup using those software?

Thanks for anyhelp you could provide!

I know i should stay with my lp's but i didn't so now new gear, new problem to be solved!

Edited by tapajeurs
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I would call pure music. I have found they are very good with technical questions. Do you have the upsampling option set in the music server set up window? Please don't think I know what I'm doing here. I did find that I could get though the set up with the help of pure music and I bet they could help you as well!

Josh

Edited by joshnich
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I'm not exactly sure of what you are asking but I can address a couple of things...

 

You are right to not use iTunes by itself on the Mac because it will resample your files unless you manually set the rate.  PureMusic or Amarra using iTunes for the playlist is a well regarded method.  

 

Regarding upsampling to a higher rate:  - Some people have reported improved sound by using software to convert their 44.1khz 16bit files to 96/24. Note that this was not upsampling on the fly via the player.  I have not tried this upsample conversion of my files and honestly don't plan on trying it just because it doesn't make sense to me unless I just want to make the files bigger.  I would think the DAC would play the biggest role here and it might like to see files in its native resolution and sound the best that way. Personally, I play my 44.1/16 FLAC files ripped from CD just as they are.

 

I can tell you that the Ayre QB-9 is a very capable and musical DAC... it would not be a limiting factor in your system for sure !  I'd like to hear about comparisons of the current version with the Auralic!

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I would call pure music. I have found they are very good with technical questions. Do you have the upsampling option set in the music server set up window? Please don't think I know what I'm doing here. I did find that I could get though the set up with the help of pure music and I bet they could help you as well!

Josh[/quote

I would call pure music. I have found they are very good with technical questions. Do you have the upsampling option set in the music server set up window? Please don't think I know what I'm doing here. I did find that I could get though the set up with the help of pure music and I bet they could help you as well!

Josh

Well, it is because of them, i have started to questionning my set up. I have upload the trial version and read on there website and now i am questionning if i go with purchasing the software or not?

Since i want to use my macmini headless, i am not sure of the result, since my mac doesn't show 16 depth...

For now, still investigate and will contact them, thanks for pointing that out

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I would call pure music. I have found they are very good with technical questions. Do you have the upsampling option set in the music server set up window? Please don't think I know what I'm doing here. I did find that I could get though the set up with the help of pure music and I bet they could help you as well!

Josh[/quote

I would call pure music. I have found they are very good with technical questions. Do you have the upsampling option set in the music server set up window? Please don't think I know what I'm doing here. I did find that I could get though the set up with the help of pure music and I bet they could help you as well!

Josh

Well, it is because of them, i have started to questionning my set up. I have upload the trial version and read on there website and now i am questionning if i go with purchasing the software or not?

Since i want to use my macmini headless, i am not sure of the result, since my mac doesn't show 16 depth...

For now, still investigate and will contact them, thanks for pointing that out

 

 

Are you accessing the adjustments through the Mac program "midi audio setup" ?   If you haven't opened this, go to the launchpad and search for midi, it should pull it up and give a 16 bit option.

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I would call pure music. I have found they are very good with technical questions. Do you have the upsampling option set in the music server set up window? Please don't think I know what I'm doing here. I did find that I could get though the set up with the help of pure music and I bet they could help you as well!

Josh[/quote

I would call pure music. I have found they are very good with technical questions. Do you have the upsampling option set in the music server set up window? Please don't think I know what I'm doing here. I did find that I could get though the set up with the help of pure music and I bet they could help you as well!

Josh

Well, it is because of them, i have started to questionning my set up. I have upload the trial version and read on there website and now i am questionning if i go with purchasing the software or not?

Since i want to use my macmini headless, i am not sure of the result, since my mac doesn't show 16 depth...

For now, still investigate and will contact them, thanks for pointing that out

 

 

Are you accessing the adjustments through the Mac program "midi audio setup" ?   If you haven't opened this, go to the launchpad and search for midi, it should pull it up and give a 16 bit option.

 

It depends on the DAC you have hooked up.  None of the three I use show a 16bit option in midi set up, but it does not matter the mac will output a bit perfect 16 bit signal when playing redbook anyway.   The original poster is worrying about a non issue.

 

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So to my original Question, why i don't see the 16 depth, and see only the 24 and the 32 in midi set up, is irrelevant, because itunes don't care and will play music 44/16 anyhow.

Second question, using the midi set-up and adjusting to 384/32 is also irrelevant, even if the dac show 384 bitrates, in fac it will be 44/16.

And midi set up or pure music, it is the same thing, except puremusic bypass itunes digital volume to play direct data to the dac.

My goal was to sent best data to dac and the dac do the job, for now, i can't tell what set play best, but only the one that produce listening fatigue, after 2 hours.

So far, no fatigue 44.1, 384, 88.2 in 24 depth.

the rest well, still experimenting.

Two software to test

-Bitperfect

-Pure music

Still if midi, don't do nothing about the original source, why dac read and show 384 when midi setup 384? Does the macmini is oversampling or doing the math to produce those data?

regards

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So to my original Question, why i don't see the 16 depth, and see only the 24 and the 32 in midi set up, is irrelevant, because itunes don't care and will play music 44/16 anyhow.

Second question, using the midi set-up and adjusting to 384/32 is also irrelevant, even if the dac show 384 bitrates, in fac it will be 44/16.

And midi set up or pure music, it is the same thing, except puremusic bypass itunes digital volume to play direct data to the dac.

My goal was to sent best data to dac and the dac do the job, for now, i can't tell what set play best, but only the one that produce listening fatigue, after 2 hours.

So far, no fatigue 44.1, 384, 88.2 in 24 depth.

the rest well, still experimenting.

Two software to test

-Bitperfect

-Pure music

Still if midi, don't do nothing about the original source, why dac read and show 384 when midi setup 384? Does the macmini is oversampling or doing the math to produce those data?

regards

First question:  It does not matter.  

Second question: It does matter what you set the frequency to in midi setup.  You have to set it with iTunes closed and then open iTunes each time you play a selection with a different rate.  You need to set it to the rate of the song you play or quality of the playback will be compromised.  Pure music and other programs solve this issue by doing it automatically with out having to relaunch and that is the best reason to use them IMO.

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