Is It Possible to Get more than 16Bit/48KHz using TI TAS1020B, on Windows XP?

[phofman]

You can always boot a live linux distro (Mint Mate 20 is my choice, but any will do) from a USB flash and test the SPDIF output from there. Linux IntelHDA driver will let you do anything your hardware supports, provided it is configured properly. But my 2 cents the spdif output will be offered without any additional configuration, just upon booting.

[spaceman5]

Nice idea, will try it..
Thank you very much - for quite a while I wanted to switch from USB to SPDIF (Optical),
for connecting my computer to a DAC.


I also saw an Optical SPDIF Switch, which enables you to take several Optical inputs, and switch between them to 1 output.
That's a useful thing

[phofman]

A trivial mechanical optical fibre TOSLINK selector is available on ebay for a few bucks.

[spaceman5]

Yes..
I think I also saw a remote controlled one..

[linuxfan]

This talk about s/pdif output from a PC made me curious, so I powered up an old Pentium4 computer I had in storage, and installed WindowsXP-SP3. Windows XP did not recognise the onboard audio (CMedia CMI9761A) so I had to install audio drivers from the motherboard manufacturer (Gigabyte). This driver installation also provided an audio control panel - image attached - and you will see that it lists the s/pdif output as 48kHz - no other samplerates were listed. Presumably this means that with Windows XP standard output (DirectSound) that's the best you can expect, even though the specification for this CMedia audio chip lists the maximum samplerate as 96kHz.

So then I went ahead and installed both the kernel-streaming and asio output components for foobar2000, plus ASIO4ALL. Now foobar2000 lists extra output options: "KS" and "ASIO" - image attached.
Then I connected the s/pdif header on the motherboard to the coaxial s/pdif input of my ES9018 DAC.
For testing I have 4 audio tracks with different samplerates; 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 96kHz, and 192kHz.
The kernel streaming output setting completely failed, with error messages.
The ASIO output setting worked with the 44.1 and 48 tracks, but my DAC reported the incoming samplerate in both cases as 48kHz. Clearly the 44.1 track is being upsampled to 48 at some point in the chain. The 96 track failed. The 192 track failed, and crashed the computer!

Next I decided to disable the onboard audio and install a PCI audio card that I have on hand - a Chaintech AV710, with VIA Envy24HT-S chip. The control panel for this driver allows you to set the output samplerate as AUTO, 44.1, 48, or 96. It's worth noting that the maximum samplerate specified for this chip is 192kHz, so again, our Windows XP driver appears to limit the maximum samplerate.
The ASIO output setting failed, with all 4 tracks.
The kernel streaming output setting worked, but ONLY when I played a track with the same samplerate as specified in the driver control panel. I thought that the "AUTO" setting in the control panel would solve this problem, but unfortunately this only allowed 44.1 and 48 tracks to be played, not a 96kHz track.
So my conclusions so far:
- with the 2 audio interfaces that I tested it was impossible to configure s/pdif output which allowed auto-switching of all samplerates, to match the native samplerate of the source material.
- the maximum samplerate of each audio interface, as listed in its specifications, was not achievable - probably due to a limitation of the Windows XP drivers - and even though ASIO4ALL is supposed to "improve performance" we should be mindful that ASIO4ALL is simply a "translation layer" between the normal Windows driver, and audio playback application. So if the Windows driver limits maximum samplerate, ASIO4ALL cannot improve that.

Then I booted Linux on the same computer (with the Envy24HT-S sound card still installed) hoping that things would improve.
Nope.
Optical s/pdif from this sound card displayed "44" on my DAC for the 44.1kHz track, and "48" for the 48kHz track - encouraging start, except that there was no actual audio output. Also the 96kHz track and 192kHz track displayed only as "48" on my DAC. I tried many different ALSA configuration settings with little or no change.

I have a suspicion that semi-professional audio interfaces which are designed for home recording may have better drivers, and may auto-change their output samplerate, and may support samplerates as high as 192kHz.
But for the average computer sound card it appears that achieving high resolution s/pdif output is difficult.

spaceman5, if you want to explore the world of high resolution audio (which I personally regard as over-hyped anyway) I suggest you save towards buying one of modern generation of DAC's with hi-res-capable USB interface - such as the SMSL Sanskrit 10th mk2 at US$110 or Topping E30 at US$130.

[phofman]

CMedia CMI9761A is an AC97 codec capable of 96kHz http://pdf4.datasheet.su/236123.pdf . A question is whether your onboard AC97 controller also supports 96kHz, and whether the WinXP driver supports that. Very likely not.

Chaintech AV710 is a regular Envy24HT card supporting up to 192/24. Its TOSLINK may not go to 192kHz, but that is a hardware limitation of the old Toslink transmitter, newer optical transmitters run up to 192kHz. Linux has been supporting full capabilities of that card for well over a decade. If you are limited only to 44.1 and 48kHz, you are most likely running through pulseaudio which by default is configured at these two samplerates. Running through alsa directly will give you full 192kHz support. AFAIR there is no TOSLINK limit in the ice1724 driver, the SPDIF channel should run up to 192kHz and your TOSLINK transmitter/receiver either will handle the bitrate or will not. Many Envy24 soundcards have a coax SPDIF output (or both coax and Toslink) which handles 192kHz fine.

[phofman]

Originally Posted by linuxfan

But for the average computer sound card it appears that achieving high resolution s/pdif output is difficult.

I have not seen an integrated Intel HDA sound device yet which would not support 192/24. Maybe the very first HDA codecs were limited to 96kHz but I do not remember seeing one.

[spaceman5]

Interesting experiment, linuxfan.

I checked my motherboard's built-in Sound Card's Control Panel application, and this is what I found:




As can be seen, in ym case it's HD Audio, so chances are better.
You wrote that the computer you tried on is a Pentium 4 - that's much older than mine..
My computer is Core i3-3220, so the motherboard is also relatively newer.

I then went to the 3rd tab in that Control Panel application - "Audio IO", and found this:




Now If I click the small Wrench icon on the top-right corner of that "Digital" panel,
then I get this sub-window:




As can be seen, I have 4 Sample Rate options, from 44.1KHz to 192KHz..
All of them are clickable, and pressing OK saves each one.
(that's thanks to the HD Audio that this built-in sound card supports)


So I guess my chances are good..

BTW I only discovered it now, since you showed the screenshot with the Control Panel..


I ordered the SPDIF-Out panel last week, and it should arrive quite fast..

I am really curious to test it after it arrives..

[spaceman5]

Originally Posted by linuxfan

spaceman5, if you want to explore the world of high resolution audio (which I personally regard as over-hyped anyway) I suggest you save towards buying one of modern generation of DAC's with hi-res-capable USB interface - such as the SMSL Sanskrit 10th mk2 at US$110 or Topping E30 at US$130.

Since the Control Panel for my built-in sound card lists 192KHz,
and since the SMSL M3 that I got accepts 192KHz on the SPDIF Optical Input,
then I might be successful.
All thanks to the fact that it's HD Audio.

I will report immediately after receivng and installing the SPDIF-Out panel.

Originally Posted by phofman

I have not seen an integrated Intel HDA sound device yet which would not support 192/24.

This is really good to hear, and sounds quite promising.

Originally Posted by linuxfan

Then I connected the s/pdif header on the motherboard to the coaxial s/pdif input of my ES9018 DAC.

Oh...
So the same pin header on the motherboard can be used either for Optical or Coaxial..
Nice to know that.


BTW, what is your ES9018 DAC?

[JarekC]

Tas1020B with appropriate firmware can play max 24bits/96kHz.
Information about supported freq. are included in USB descriptors.
You can read it by TDD.EXE
Thesycon - USB Descriptor Dumper Tool