Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

[bobbymcm]

New to Musicbee - looks amazing so far.

However, my little (cheap) DAC seems to crackle when playing 192khz files via WASAPI, despite it stating on the packaging that it supports them. This might be due to me connecting it via optical not coaxial, but I don't have coaxial output on my sound card so that's kind of moot.

So, unless anyone has any other ideas, I'm trying to set up Musicbee to automatically resample 192khz files to 96khz, but leave everything else untouched. Is this possible?

Thanks for any ideas you might have!

[hiccup]

This might be due to me connecting it via optical not coaxial, but I don't have coaxial output on my sound card so that's kind of moot.

That is probably the cause.
Toslink was not designed for such high sample rates, and there are relatively few cases where sample rates high as that work well.

You could take a look at using a possibly better short-as-possible high-quality optical cable.
And maybe take a look at your soundcard drivers?

Personally, even though my equipment has no issues with handling so called hi-res audio, if I can't avoid acquiring such files I always re-sample them to sensible bit/sample rates and then delete the hi-res files.
Higher bit/sample rates are a blessing in audio production, but for the end release that finds its way to end users I find it to be a senseless marketing overkill.

[bobbymcm]

Thanks hiccup.

If I’m honest I know that 192khz files aren’t all that useful for “normal” playback and I should probably resample them and archive the originals (prob on burned DVD-A for use in my Oppo with my main system).

But is it safe to assume from your reply that Musicbee can’t be set up to do what I was hoping for?

[hiccup]

But is it safe to assume from your reply that Musicbee can’t be set up to do what I was hoping for?

I can't answer that at the moment, I never looked for it or tried it out.

[bobbymcm]

No worries, thanks!

[bobbymcm]

So after a little more investigation I’m confused. The little DAC seems absolutely fine with 192khz files bitstreamed from the Oppo player, using the same optical cable as with the PC. No crackling at all.

Could this be down to: power supply from the PC USB ports versus the Oppo’s front USB port? Or maybe a Windows or player setting I’m missing?

[Steven]

are you using WASAPI (shared) or WASAPI (exclusive) and is the other player also using the same?
If one is using WASAPI (shared) then the output will be resampled to the shared sample rate in windows (prob. 48K)

[hiccup]

The Oppo is probably a Blu-ray player.
You could check the S/PDIF output settings in it's menu.

If the Oppo is not doing any downsampling, then you could look for issues with Windows/device drivers/MusicBee.

[bobbymcm]

Correct, the Oppo is a player. DVD not Blu, 980h. But as far as I can tell it’s set to not down sample anything - digital output is set to “raw”, which is the closest menu option I can find.

Sound card drivers are up to date - 2019 - which is why I was wondering about an obscure setting somewhere in the players or the OS.

The Windows sound test utility itself crackles when testing 192khz through the optical to the DAC as well, leading me to drivers, but I’m now stuck...

[hiccup]

That probably brings your quest in this thread to an end then, since your issue doesn't seem to be related to MusicBee.

You could do a test with a foobar2000 portable installation (fb is pretty much the golden standard when it comes to playing audio on a Windows PC), but if Windows' own testing is failing for you already, foobar will probably too.

Other suggestions: look for support at the manufacturer of your dac, and search the web for other people having similar issues with it.

And maybe name the brand/model here, so others googling the same issue and landing here are informed?
And if you found a cure that might benefit other MusicBee users, be sure to report back?
Good luck!


p.s.
Repeating myself perhaps annoyingly: just re-encode everything to 16/44, delete the hi-res files and be done with it.
If you are unsure about this, see if you can setup a truly objective blind test first.
And be sure to remove yourself from the equation and ask a friend to assist.

I might be wrong, but I can't imagine you'll be able to tell what's what.
Well, maybe if the 16/44 files play 1dB louder, then you'll certainly prefer those. ;-)

If you decide to do this, starting a new topic in 'Beyond MusicBee' might be interesting...

[redwing]

What output mode are you using?

[bobbymcm]

Thanks again Hiccup - I expect you’re right, both about the cause of my issue and the value of resampling.

Support for my DAC will, I suspect, be hard to find as it’s a generic Chinese thing from Amazon. The brand is Techole, but it seems identical to a million differently branded things available there. It was only £10 so I’m not especially surprised about the dodgy functionality. Perhaps there’s a lesson there.

Redwing: I’m using WASAPI to my Realtek Digital Putput (Optical). Same crackly results with 192khz in Windows sound tear in control panel, Musicbee and F2K. Sounds great with everything else!

[hiccup]

Isn't it great that that these days you can find something for 10 pounds that more or less works and sounds good.
That's kinda fun by itself.

If you are content with it's sound quality and have no plans for upgrading it with some 'serious' dac:

Forget about wasting time testing 'hi-res' vs. 16/44.
Forget about wasting time getting a £10 dac to work perfectly in every possible situation and with every type of audio file.

Convert the bloody lot to 16/44 and just enjoy the music. ;-)

[redwing]

Support for my DAC will, I suspect, be hard to find as it’s a generic Chinese thing from Amazon. The brand is Techole, but it seems identical to a million differently branded things available there. It was only £10 so I’m not especially surprised about the dodgy functionality. Perhaps there’s a lesson there.

Not necessarily it's about the brand or price of your DAC but probably it's about you're using a generic optical cable which would support up to 24/96kHz in most cases.

[captain_paranoia]

> The little DAC seems absolutely fine with 192khz files bitstreamed from the Oppo player, using the same optical cable as with the PC.

It may be the SPDIF transmitter on the PC that is the limiting factor. The Oppo may have a faster device. The cable is unlikely to be the limiting factor.