USB output?

[BANSwee]

... is it in PCM or bitstream?


I'm kinda old' tech, so here's the situation.. I was allowed to have my audio space (solely) and I'm trying to re-do my system and make my macbook a music server (like everyone else) :evil:.. So, I did bought a cheapo USB- S/PDIF connector and I'm still trying to decide what kind of DAC I'll be going with.. While reading I encountered some post that says that some DAC only process PCM signal...

So I have no clue if my macbook output it as PCM or ......?

help

TIA

 

[Mike]

It will be fine.

 

[sharkmouth]

Jason, it can do both. It's like saying is it a pdf or word file as in the type of/or the way it is written/recorded. bitstream is computer language, pcm is music language anic:

 

[BANSwee]

thank u. as long as my dac of choice works. lol

 

[sharkmouth]

thank u. as long as my dac of choice works. lol

Another bit of advice as for the software to choose to play the music. If you just want a no hassle player that is very good then Audirvana+ is easy to use & also can be easily set up in the preferences for the best playback for your macbook. Just ask if you're not sure about anything.

 

[BANSwee]

Another bit of advice as for the software to choose to play the music. If you just want a no hassle player that is very good then Audirvana+ is easy to use & also can be easily set up in the preferences for the best playback for your macbook. Just ask if you're not sure about anything.

Hi Kev, well I encountered an issue and I want to ask..

I set my audio MIDI to 24/96 as what my usb to spdif specs are. BUT was having trouble playing thru USB output. There was no sound from my system. When I check the macbook it did output to the internal speaker. The only way I can make the connection work is to have to set to 24/48..

So I was buffled with that, so I check some post online and wiki.. To my surprise spdif is usually at 48kHz.. WTH??? is this true at all? I mean I see a lot of USB to spdif max out at 192...

here is a quote from wiki

"S/PDIF is used to transmit digital signals of a number of formats, the most common being the 48 kHz sample rate format (used in DAT) and the 44.1 kHz format, used in CD audio. In order to support both systems, as well as others that might be needed, the format has no defined data rate. Instead, the data is sent using biphase mark code, which has either one or two transitions for every bit, allowing the original word clock to be extracted from the signal itself.
S/PDIF is meant to be used for transmitting 20-bit audio data streams plus other related information. To transmit sources with less than 20 bits of sample accuracy, the superfluous bits will be set to zero. S/PDIF can also transport 24-bit samples by way of four extra bits; however, not all equipment supports this, and these extra bits may be ignored"



so now I'm thinking -- does this mean my usb-spdif is not a true 24/96? or maybe my old macbook is not compatible . (IIRC its only usb 1.0)

on a good side though, I am pretty much enjoying my new system.. Its very detailed but not edgy or fatiguing.. Its musical too.. I guess it was a good idea to chose USb-SPdif that asyncrhous.

tanhks !