Hi Rez files stutter at 16/44

[Quinn]

I recently traded for a vintage, rebuilt dac that pretty much only handles 16/44. I'm fine with that, and I set the Wiim and Qobuz bit rates to 16/44. I was under the assumption that even if a track or album I choose to play is 24 bit high rez, that it will still play it.

But I'm finding some hi rez albums will sound very choppy or stutter. It would be fine if there's more than one mastering of the album to choose from, but in some cases an album is only in that format.

Is there a way to enable it to work?

 

[Wiimer]

You may have to choose between enabling WiiM's fixed resolution or giving up on using that DAC..

 

[EddNog]

I recently traded for a vintage, rebuilt dac that pretty much only handles 16/44. I'm fine with that, and I set the Wiim and Qobuz bit rates to 16/44. I was under the assumption that even if a track or album I choose to play is 24 bit high rez, that it will still play it.

But I'm finding some hi rez albums will sound very choppy or stutter. It would be fine if there's more than one mastering of the album to choose from, but in some cases an album is only in that format.

Is there a way to enable it to work?

I can't possibly conceive of a single DAC that's so old that it has that kind of limitation that will still outperform the DAC in any WiiM, even the Mini.

-Ed

 

[Quinn]

I can't possibly conceive of a single DAC that's so old that it has that kind of limitation that will still outperform the DAC in any WiiM, even the Mini.

-Ed

On paper you would be correct. My hope when I got the Wiim is that it would be good enough to use it's dac. It was ok, but not great. I then tested several dacs friends lent me and they were all better; thus I've gone with external dacs. And by vintage, yes it's 20 year old technology with tubes, and it outperformed every dac I used or tested. I have an LKS dac, it sounds excellent, but it doesn't quite achieve the amazing natural sound my tube dac does. I've had people listen to both, and they all picked the older tube dac.

Since this bit rate limitation is apparent what I've done is connect my CD player to it as it improves the already great sounding player to another level. But on the shelf above it I've setup the LKS dac. Most of the music I listen to works well on the older dac, and if I really want to hear some higher rez music I'll just plug in the LKS which plays up to 24/192.

 

[Aquaman]

On paper you would be correct. My hope when I got the Wiim is that it would be good enough to use it's dac. It was ok, but not great. I then tested several dacs friends lent me and they were all better; thus I've gone with external dacs. And by vintage, yes it's 20 year old technology with tubes, and it outperformed every dac I used or tested. I have an LKS dac, it sounds excellent, but it doesn't quite achieve the amazing natural sound my tube dac does. I've had people listen to both, and they all picked the older tube dac.

Since this bit rate limitation is apparent what I've done is connect my CD player to it as it improves the already great sounding player to another level. But on the shelf above it I've setup the LKS dac. Most of the music I listen to works well on the older dac, and if I really want to hear some higher rez music I'll just plug in the LKS which plays up to 24/192.

High-res and a tube DAC is a contradiction in itself.
Plus, the former is useless for listening and the latter adds distortion. You obviously like this kind of distortion. Many people accompany it with a ‚warmer‘ more analogue-sounding sound. Nothing wrong with that. Just be careful with ‚better‘ and ‚worse‘.

There are some new DACs which will do exactly this. Look for ‚ladder DAC‘.
They can also process your high-res files.