![]() I’ve chosen this because it’s easier than some other player software to set up, works on Windows and MAC computers (and Linux as well), and can provide confirmation that the signal is going through to the DAC perfectly. And for music playback we’ll be using the latest version of JRiver Media Center. This is seriously affordable, yet offers the kind of performance you’d expect from a unit costing ten times as much. So the notification can ring right in the middle of that aria that you had, until then, been enjoying.įor our example DAC, we’re going to use the quite remarkable Topping E30 Desktop USB DAC, pictured at the top of this page. What if your music is running at a different sampling rate to the notification? Not a problem: Windows just resamples all the audio to one fixed sample rate. ![]() ![]() It needs to mix that notification bell or sound into your music. So, while you are playing some music, Windows might want to alert you to incoming email or some other important matter. A computer is a multipurpose device that can run many processes and programs at the same time. While many of us use computers for high end audio, that’s not what they are designed for. Why does Windows mess with your sound?īefore we start, understand that it’s right and proper that Windows takes control over audio and sometimes plays around with it. So, let’s see how you can set up a DAC with Windows so that it gets bit-perfect sound from your computer. But are you getting the best that it can deliver? My guess is that most people using DACs on their computer are getting less than perfect sound because the sound is being processed by Windows in some way before it even gets to the DAC. You can just plug most of them into most computers and straight away you’ll get a marked improvement in sound quality. There are lots of fine DACs available for this job, priced from just a few tens of dollars up to many thousands. But a computer’s audio output is mediocre at best, so you will need to add a USB Digital to Analogue converter. It can stream high-resolution Master Quality Authenticated music from TIDAL, or ultra-high-resolution music from its own storage, or from your network storage. My Toshiba laptop lacks those outputs, however.A Windows computer can make a great source for high-fidelity sound. If you have a newish computer that has coax or TosLink connections, you should be able to send hi-rez music files via these. Over the years, S/PDIF has stayed alive by, with little fanfare, continually upping the bandwidth. S/PDIF used to be a slow interface that would accept no more than 16-bit/48kHz stereo, or lossily compressed multichannel Dolby Digital or DTS. ![]() The digital coax and optical (TosLink) interfaces use S/PDIF protocol to move data. The Wavelength Proton USB DAC (see “Comparison”) accepts everything up to 24 bits and sample rates up to 96kHz, using the same software and setup options I used with the WD202.ĭoes that mean there’s no way to get 88.2kHz or higher, and 20- or 24-bit data, into the WD202? No. Feeding it a 24-bit file or a sample rate higher than 48kHz produces only a message of “incompatible hardware” and a refusal to accept the data. The WD202 is one of these: via USB, it won’t accept any resolution higher than 16 bits and 48kHz. I say “many” because some have USB inputs that are limited: even if the DAC is a 24-bit/192kHz device, its USB port may not accept sample rates of 192, 176.4, 96, or even 88.2kHz, or any more than 16 bits. "Using a computer opens a new world of high-resolution files that can be played through many products. I got answer, not from YBA, but from internet ( ):
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