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Questioning my Oppo Sonica dac?

I'm hoping for some insight on my problem. I've been using an Oppo Sonica for a few years now for streaming until I started having connection issues streaming Tidal mainly this was thru wifi. Fast forward to the recent purchase of the IFI Zen streamer which was very difficult (to my limited tech abilities) via wifi, so I move my modem and router and go with wired connect. Problem solved for connection. Tidal cancelled (not really relevant) just using Spotify, Zen into Sonica for the dac.

I then sign up for trial with Quboz and after researching use MconnectHD to use with IFI Zen. My joy when sound is finally produced. The IFI is now telling me I'm steaming hi res (white led display) but my display on the Sonica dac says 44.1 pcm. this is via coax. I have no idea which is correct but do not want to pay for Quboz if the dac is correct. Can't really go with another dac at this point to trial. Any feedback appreciated. Thanks.

danham
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,502 posts
 

You are paying for better sound. If you can’t tell the difference, don’t pay.

Every DAC I’ve ever owned displays the wrong resolution and/or bitrate.

BFD

danham OP
15 posts
 

@ fuzztone Thanks for the reply. Spotify and Quboz are about the same price with the Studio subscription. I clearly won’t need both though. I know the Spotify won’t improve any but I don’t mind it at all, I’m curious if my dac is possibly blocking a hi res signal somehow. How did you determine your dac was not displaying correctly?

jastralfu's avatar
jastralfu
214 posts
 

Do you know what bit rate the song you were playing is? 44.1kHz/16bit is CD quality but 44.1kHz/24bit is considered hi-res and would only show as 44.1 on your DAC. Both of your components can be correct in this instance.

soix
8,722 posts
 

In Qobuz settings you can change the resolution level.  That might be the problem unless your DAC just can’t handle higher resolutions, then you just need to upgrade your DAC to something from this century.

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