Bit Perfect and PEQ

[Joffieb]

All of us who love the WiiM (mine is a mini) believe that it’s as good as any streamer because it’s bit perfect and if you believe the whole clock thing is snake oil, it’s as good as anything as long as you use an external DAC. But!!! How does the PEQ feature affect that quality. Is it still as good as any streamer? In my naïveté I think I’m asking does it decode the data then apply the filter and then reencode it and send it out to the DAC, OR does it keep the file bit perfect and just send it out with some type of tag or external file that says to the DAC, apply these filters?

 

[Brantome]

in order to remain bit perfect I.e. have exactly the same digital stream output as was received, you need fixed volume, volume limit 100%, GEQ/PEQ off and mono off (think that’s the lot) as they change the bitstream so it’s no longer bit perfect.

I wouldn’t get hung up on it tbh - if you use PEQ and it sounds good, that’s all that matters at the end of the day. Being bit perfect to me just means the device itself doesn’t change it unless you explicitly ask it to…

 

[Mr Ee]

does it decode the data then apply the filter and then reencode it and send it out to the DAC

If by decode and reencode you mean get converted to analog then back to digital, no.
The adjustments are made in the digital domain, and it's effectively just changing the volume around specific frequencies.
The change means it's no longer bit perfect, 'cos it's sending a modified stream to the dac, but that certainly doesn't mean it can't sound better to you, the listener.

 

[merifon]

Since I still don't decide which external processor take, I had to choice among the romance of bit perfectness but with a hole at 72 and 144Hz due to room modes or go with PEQ correction. Correction it's far better...