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AnonMathematician

Member

Registered: 2019-10-12

Posts: 12

Pulse Audio won't push High-res PCM (24-bit/96 kHz) to external DAC

I have several 24-bit 96 kHz music files I am trying to play using an external DAC (Topping DX7s, for reference). Whenever I play these files, regardless of the music software I use, playback is limited to 24-bit 48 kHz, and I would like it to playback at 96 kHz. I have not had problems with this in Windows or MacOS, so I suppose it has something to do with the configuration of Pulse Audio. I have tried modifying files in .config/pulse, but to no avail. I have also tried changing ALSA config files without any luck. If anyone could help me out, it would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I am aware sample rates higher than 44.1 kHz do not typically result in increased sonic performance (I'm an electrical engineer and I know of the Shannon-Nyquist theorem). I am just a crazy audiophile and perfectionist.

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,565

Re: Pulse Audio won't push High-res PCM (24-bit/96 kHz) to external DAC

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwa … udiophile/
I personally use mpd to play my higher resolution files.
You can also have a look at having a JACK setup if you want to consistently play files in higher sample outputs.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,771

Re: Pulse Audio won't push High-res PCM (24-bit/96 kHz) to external DAC

I'm an electrical engineer and I know of the Shannon-Nyquist theorem). I am just a crazy audiophile and perfectionist.

O_o   Um, okay.   So you know what the science says, but you are still going to believe in superstition?  All you are going to do with the higher sample frequency is to suppress the unwanted harmonics above 14 kHz-ish.

Two thoughts;  Have you instrumented the output of your amp to see if there is anything above 10-12  kHz in the first place?  Most audio systems that are not extreme high end will roll off pretty hard around that point.  Only the really good, or the really bad ones don't

Second, unless your ears are less than about a third the age of mine you probably won't hear anything over 10 kHz anyway, which makes the -3dB point and the roll off moot.

Last edited by ewaller (2019-12-23 02:32:36)

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V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,650

Re: Pulse Audio won't push High-res PCM (24-bit/96 kHz) to external DAC

You have to elaborate more on the actual process you are doing. On new pulseaudio versions you should simply be able to set

avoid-resampling = true

in your daemon.conf to dynamically reopen the output device with the correct parameters if possible. What do you use for testing what are your outputs of

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
pulseaudio --dump-conf
pacmd list-cards
#During playback
pacmd list-sinks
pacmd list-sink-inputs

and contents of any files you've adjusted.

dglt

Member

Registered: 2019-08-14

Posts: 82

Re: Pulse Audio won't push High-res PCM (24-bit/96 kHz) to external DAC

I would like it to playback at 96 kHz. I have not had problems with this in Windows or MacOS, so I suppose it has something to do with the configuration of Pulse Audio. I have tried modifying files in .config/pulse, but to no avail. I have also tried changing ALSA config files without any luck.

this and the linked pages within it are pretty good on optimizing pulseaudio, the pulse defaults are ok if sound quality is not a priority but a good configuration makes all the difference.
https://www.overclock.net/how-to-get-th … ulseaudio/

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,650

Re: Pulse Audio won't push High-res PCM (24-bit/96 kHz) to external DAC

Nearly all of the information on that page is outdated, it shouldn't be followed to a T... libsamplerate resamplers are all deprecated and not built by default, one shouldn't mess with latency settings without an actual reason for it, and it doesn't mention anything about the new avoid resampling options in newer pulse versions.

dglt

Member

Registered: 2019-08-14

Posts: 82

Re: Pulse Audio won't push High-res PCM (24-bit/96 kHz) to external DAC

i should of mentioned to use it as a rough guide, more for fragment amount/size, how to calculate it and whereabouts to make the edits in .config/pulse rather than /etc/pulse .  as you mentioned some of it is outdated, i just haven't come across a more up to date guide that explains what each does. even the fragments/size calculations, sampling methods/rates are a safe calculation for typical entry level hardware like onboard audio. i use a small dac and use much larger fragment sizes and use 96khz as default which results in much better audio quality at the cost of using a little more cpu and this is after days of trying many different configurations and a one-size-fits-all for audio just doesnt exist. latency though as you mentioned shouldn't be messed with unless you have a specific reason for needing it and audio playback is not one of them.