Windows high res playback

Posted by: JamesN on 17 January 2017

Hi,

I'm very happy with my windows based source using a Hugo and a Gustard U12 spdif converter. It sounds great.

I have been downloading quite a bit of high res music over the last year or so, but the Gustard is only showing 44.1 on the display, which means that the pc is down sampling the high res files to CD quality.

I went into the midi settings and changed it to 192, which changes the display on the Gustard to 192 regardless if I'm playing high res or red book etc, which obviously means that the pc is now upsampling everything to 192.

Is this supposed to happen? Is it ok for the computer to upsample the CD quality files to 192? Will it affect the sound quality? I was hoping that the computer would change the bitrate according to the file resolution automatically rather than a 'one fits all' approach.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

James

Posted on: 31 January 2017 by Geoff P

James, Can't answer the latest question.

Just a comment.

You mentioned you have a MacBook earlier. Try 'BitPerfect' free software to play  through. Bit Perfect takes over audio delivery using I-tunes as the selection interface only. It reports what frequency/bit rate it is playing both in it's pull down menu and the colour it's icon in the top toolbar changes to:

• 48kHz       -  Red
• 88.2kHz    -  Lilac
• 96kHz       -  Pink
• 176.4kHz  -  Turquoise
• 192kHz     -  Orange
• 352.8kHz  -  Purple
• 384kHz     -  Yellow
• DSD64      -  Dark Green
• DSD128    -  Light Green
• DSD256    -  Pale Green

Via its 'preferences' panel It allows you to either play 'as is' or up-sample at your discretion. Since it is free you could try it and additionally let your ears do the testing to see if the native rate is best.

I have both a MacPro and a MM. Using USB out into a 192 capable 'HiFace' based board using I2S into a bespoke DAC There is hardly anything audible between them though the MAC Pro gets it's source files streamed from my NAS and the MM has it all stored locally.

I also have a PC and use WASAPI with a simple audio file player implementation from 'spoon' of dBPoweramp/illustrate software fame.  

see here:  https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/s...poweramp-Renaissance

Music is 'called' using 'ASSET' also from illustrate, which also has settings for bit rate control.

Regards

Geoff

Posted on: 31 January 2017 by Bart
JamesN posted:

Hi again,

So I've spent my day downloading and acquainting myself with Jriver for Windows. I have to say that I'm impressed! I love the look of it and the remote control is superb. My metadata is in tact too.

More importantly though the Gustard is now correctly showing that Jriver is changing the bitrate according to the file type, which is great. Finally i can play my high res tracks! Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

One issue I do have though is that all of the album art is present and correct, except for anything I have downloaded in Qobuz. Not sure why that would be as they come up in iTunes and are the same file type (aiff).

Any ideas? 

JRiver is pretty liberal with cover art -- you can store it in the same folder as the music files and name the cover art file as folder.jpg  You can also embed the cover art.  The JRiver wiki has an extensive discussion of the options. 

If you google it, you'll see at least one reference to JRiver not finding embedded cover art in aiff files.  You may need to add folder.jpg files to your folders, or convert the aiff files to flac.

Posted on: 31 January 2017 by likesmusic
JamesN posted:

Hi again,

So I've spent my day downloading and acquainting myself with Jriver for Windows. I have to say that I'm impressed! I love the look of it and the remote control is superb. My metadata is in tact too.

More importantly though the Gustard is now correctly showing that Jriver is changing the bitrate according to the file type, which is great. Finally i can play my high res tracks! Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

One issue I do have though is that all of the album art is present and correct, except for anything I have downloaded in Qobuz. Not sure why that would be as they come up in iTunes and are the same file type (aiff).

Any ideas? 

Since it's only the Qobuz tracks there's an issue with it's not a general iTunes to J River problem, though this can sometimes be caused by the fact that iTunes can store cover art in it's own private database rather than inside the file.

Easiest way to fix it would probably be

Find the original covert art if you have it. If not get it from www.albumart.org

Open up JRiver, find the album with missing artwork and display the tracks. Select all the tracks. Right click on any of those tracks, 

Cover Art > Add from file    (or use any of the other options like Get From Internet