INT202 with Naim DAC - what sampling rate to set?

quote:

Originally posted by Peleg:
Hi guys!

I am a happy owner of a Naim DAC that has arrived today (thanks to Manu!), and the Weiss INT202 interface.

The music sounds great...and very touching!
Obvious improvement over the Toslink optical chord I used to have.

I am using a Macbook Pro, and most of my music is ripped into .flac.

The players I use are - Cog and Play.

My question is - what sampling rate should I set in the Weiss control panel?

If I set 192khz on the Weiss device (and the Naim DAC HD light lits up), will the upsampling of lower bitrate music (44.1khz, 96khz) negatively affect the sound quality?

Has anyone had an experience for finding "the best settings"?

PS I also heard good things about the "Pure Music" player, and have downloaded a demo version - the player set the sample rate to the file's native rate. Would you recommend using the "up-sample" feature in Pure Music?

Upsamplings are done idealy in whole multples; so the best ranges are 44.1/88.2/176.4 kHz and 48/96/192 kHz.

Best not to mix frequencies from one range with the other; so 44.1 kHz should not be upsampled to 96/192 kHz.

-
Aleg

If you have the Weiss set at 192 then you have core audio performing the upsampling. Its not one of the better upsampling engines available. I've used pure music in upsampling mode but went back to native rates with no upsampling. I think it negates the advantages that pure music has of reducing the processor overhead whilst playing music. I'd certainly recommend trying Pure music and using it to perform the upsampling.

James

The weiss will auto switch with input. Best to play and let the 202 send native rate and let the superb nDAC upsampler do the work.

Thanks for the responses, I now have a clearer idea of what I should do.

But, in less technical terms - does it mean that:

1) If using Cog/Play players I should set the MidiAudio settings to the native sampling rate of the file (to 44.1khz as it is the case with most of my .flac files)? And if I am playing a 24/96khz file - change the rate manually to 96khz in the Weiss Panel?

2) If using PureMusic, should I just let it to the job of playing at the "native" sampling rate of the file, and as James suggested - use no upsampling?


John, one thing that confused me a little, is the fact that you said the Naim DAC will upsample the track if it is played in its native sampling rate (lets assume I set the sample rate to 44.1khz in the Weiss control panel, and playing a 44.1khz file) - the "HD" led on Naim DAC does not light up, hence does it mean it does no "upsampling". Or is it something else?

I am new to the INT202/Naim DAC combination and will appreciate comments from users who found the best way to playback their music!

Thanks again guys!

Naim DAC effectively upsamples everthing symetrically to very high freq (700k+) by using multiple clocks in an oversample configuration and it's much better suited for the job. The HiDef light is triggerred with any 88k or higher source whether it's truly HiDef or just upsampled from standard Def as they are the same format but only one is truly HiDef.

The Weiss should be able to pass whatever it sees without change.

I'm not familiar with Cog/play but if it can be configured to output native, that would likely be best. Switching manually is the other option but can be a pain depending on your library.

quote:

The weiss will auto switch with input

Does it not still rely on Audio midi / Weiss Control panle (or the player itself if capable) to command it to the required sample rate ?

James

Seems to lock and pass what's given. Not sure how Ken has his set but the TC does same when configured correctly and i've never had issue. weiss controls look very similar. Yes, the player needs to be able to change rate as required and as I said I've not enough familiarity with Mac players in general or how they're routed to the Weiss. ASIO in Windows works great so it's not a Weiss thing and player dependant. Sounds like PM will output native so all should work unless somehow configured to pass through the core.

Ok js - i see what you mean but i think you'll find it different on the mac. From what i've seen the 202 interface seems to be very much the same as the DAC2 and so the weiss targer sample rate is set via its control panel application or Audio Midi (or the audio player if it supports it)

James

Thanks for the responses.

I believe I have found an answer to my own question, and I share my findings:

Use "Play" for Mac, go into Preferences select Output. For output device select Weiss Firewire IO, and check the "Automatically adjust sample rate" checkbox.

This way, when you listen to any .flac/.wav file through Play the player will automatically change the sample rate to file's native and this way there will be no "upsampling" done by Core audio, and Naim DAC will receive bit transparent data.

The one and only issue I found is that 192/24 files are "hanging" the Play player (as confirmed on their forum). However any combinations between 44.1/16 through 176/24 work fine.

I have checked the 'bit transparency' test when I used the test files with various sample rates provided by Weiss for DAC202/INT202.

Hope this helps...