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J river Media Center 16 settings.....HELP

Also posted on the Asylum.........

Presently, I am running J River Media Center 16 on a Windows 7 64 bit platform. I have the usb connected to a Musical Fidelity V Link which upsamples to 24/96 and running the spdif output to my Emotiva dac which can accept up to 196K I am using the WASPI output setting in the Media Center, and for high rez files I have downloaded from HD Tracks, the music is perfect, couldn't ask for more. In this instance, I am NOT using the built in dsp in the Media Center software.

The problem is when I play my regular non-high rez files, the software in the Media Center automatically engages the dsp module and sets the output for 24 bits. I am unable not to use the dsp when playing regular 16 bit files!!! I assume this is because of the V link upsampling everything to 24/96.

Now the million dollar question.....is this how it is supposed to be and am I losing fidelity by having the dsp module engaged in Media Center?? I hope some experienced users with the J River Media Center can chime in.
128x128stereo5

Showing 2 responses by pulsetsar

pulsetsar
9 posts
 
I wouldn't use ASIO in Windows 7 if you are running J River. The WASAPI event style is generally the best option, with WASAPI a close second.

As for whether to stream at the native resolution or at an up sampled one, it really depends on the USB implementation. The up sampling in J River is excellent - almost all USB DACs will sound better streamed 24 bit streams. Some sound better with up sampling done on the software side. A general rule is to do multiples (44 to 88 or 172; 48 to 96 or 192, etc). Try it out and see which sounds best. Check out Benchmark's site for info.
pulsetsar
9 posts
 
Sandstone,
Cool. That likely means the Ayre is a stellar product with good jitter rejection. Many of the entry level USB DACs sound better when fed an upsampled / 24 bit depth signal. Of course, you just have to listen and try as any rule one comes up with has exceptions in computer audio. For example, there are plenty of asynchronous DACs that have their pants beaten off by adaptive / isosynchronous ones - asynchronous connections do not guarantee quality. It is also not true that all DACs sound better when fed a signal that is the same bit depth / sample rate as the original file. The Benchmark DAC is one example. They explicitly walk through examples of software where this is the case on their support WIKI. It varies not only by DAC but also by operating system and the specific playback software used!
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