Apple lossless -vs-24/96

Thanks everyone for your help! I have been listening to 24/96 files for the last hour or so. I can't believe the difference! I am really amazed to hear 24/96 via usb via my locus design polestar.

You probably also want to check the Exclusive Mode box in the Output Mode Settings, right under the option where you set WASAPI. That keeps the OS from trying to break in and bring it back to 44.1KHz.

Thanks a lot for the info. I thought I was probably missing something from J River. I will try that and let you know!

Lads - I believe the Wadia 151 supports 24/96 via USB. That can bypass any sound card you have.

In J River, you need to use WASAPI, WASAPI - Event, or Kernel Streaming. Set that in Tools - Options -Audio - Audio Output. If you are using Direct Sound you get the Windows audio, which is usually does not do 24/96. Also check under Audio - DSP & Output Modes to be sure you are passing 24/96 with no change.

I also use this little tool to see how much content there is in a track above 20KHz. You can also use Audacity or other tools for a more precise look at the file. It is surprising how many HDTracks 24/96 tracks have very little content above 20KHz.

Ok so I downloaded j river 18 and some Hd tracks in 24/96 but my 151 is sill reading at 44.1khz sampling rate. What am I missing? I assume I may need to make sure my sound card is a 24/96 or 24/192 card.

Some upsamplers such as Wave Editor on Mac do a good job of upsampling. This can improve the playback sound quality of a 44.1 track on most DACs. Why? Because the digital filter in the DAC has less impact on the music data at 96 than at 44.1. The filter "knee" is much lower in frequency for 44.1 files.

If your DAC has selectable digital filters than you can get around this nad make 44.1 sound really good. This is what my DAC has.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

lads....yes. get JRiver 18 and buy a couple of 24/96 albums from HD Tracks...you will hear the difference.

Would it be best to use J River Media 18 and buy some 24/96 tracks on hdtracks.com?

Agree...for your new music going forward...try and buy 24/96 files vs 16/44...not all will be...I like to use HD Tracks....for the higher rez files...even 24/44 sounds better to me...

You would need to re-rip the CDs using something like dbPowerAmp. But I fail to see how taking a 16-bit, 44.1kHz file and then padding it to produce a 24-bit, 96kHz version would provide any benefit at all.

Your time and effort would probably be much better spent seeking out and purchasing files that are already encoded at 24 bits and 96 kHz. And your system would *surely* sound better no matter what source material you use if you were to spend your time and money improving the speaker/room interface...

-RW-