Mac downsampling high-res FLAC files?

[Dan Turner]

Hi - I thought I'd try out some high-res music so i downloaded a 24bit 96khz FLAC sampler. I've tried playing this on my MacBook Pro via the optical out to my DAC Magic and the sample rate indicator on the DAC indicates 44.1khz. I've tried playing the file back with both VLC and Songbird and it's the same. I've looked at the settings in both applications and the sound settings on the Mac and I can't find anything pertaining to the sample rate of the spdif output.

Does anyone have any ideas? Cheers.

 

[John Duncan]

Something to do with 'Audio MIDI Setup' in your Utilities folder, but can't immediately spot what (this is a weird Macbook, might need to look on the other one...)

 

[John Duncan]

Here:

 

[Dan Turner]

Perfect! Thanks JD!

 

[John Duncan]

Did it work?

 

[Dan Turner]

Yes, thankyou it worked perfectly! Just one other thing, do you know if it's possible to set a mode for the bit length and the sample rate so that they will just automatically be whatever is native to the material being replayed? When I have a decent number of high-res files it will be a bit of a pain having to change those settings everytime I want to switch between 16/44 and 24/96 or whatever.

Cheers, Dan.

 

[John Duncan]

Dan Turner:
Yes, thankyou it worked perfectly! Just one other thing, do you know if it's possible to set a mode for the bit length and the sample rate so that they will just automatically be whatever is native to the material being replayed? When I have a decent number of high-res files it will be a bit of a pain having to change those settings everytime I want to switch between 16/44 and 24/96 or whatever.

Cheers, Dan.

No, that's one of the few complaints about how the mac deals with audio. I haven't got any 24-bit stuff (and my apple TV can only play 16-bit anyway) so it hasn't been an issue, but would be nice if they could sort it out...

 

[Anonymous]

Dan, there is an imperfect solution to changing between 44.1 and 96 on a MAC -- if you do a search there are some apple scripts that can automate the process, have a one-click script to change to 96, and another to change back to 44.1.

Have you tried just leaving audio midi at 96 -- what do 44.1 tracks sound like?

Or if you splash a bit of Dosh there is Amarra from Sonic Solutions that'll do it all automatically for you, bit perfect for $400.

 

[Dan Turner]

Neon K:
Dan, there is an imperfect solution to changing between 44.1 and 96 on a MAC -- if you do a search there are some apple scripts that can automate the process, have a one-click script to change to 96, and another to change back to 44.1.

Have you tried just leaving audio midi at 96 -- what do 44.1 tracks sound like?

Or if you splash a bit of Dosh there is Amarra from Sonic Solutions that'll do it all automatically for you, bit perfect for $400.

I did try it briefly playing back a 44.1 track set to 96khz and it sounded fine, albeit I didn't really perform a proper test to compare it to the same track replayed in it's native format. I think I'd rather have things going from the Mac in their native format and let the DAC Magic do it's thing - after all that upsamples everything to 192khz, so to have two devices both upsampling can't be good.

I don't have enough high-res material for performing the manual change to be an issue, and nor am I likely to anytime soon, unless I suddenly develop a penchant for classical music or jazz!

Thanks for the help guys.