Audiophile 24/96: what audio formats are natively supported?

[matt_garman]

I can't seem to find this information anywhere. Regarding playback of digital music, what audio formats are natively supported?

In particular, does the hardware support signed 16 bit little endian 44.1kHz audio (i.e. CD audio)?

By "natively" supported, I mean what kinds of data can be fed directly to the card, without any kind of conversion via software or driver.

Thanks!

[JA]

The Audiophile 24/96 supports playback at 16 and 24bit, and samples rates from 8k to 96k. File types are not supported by a sound card, they are supported by the application that is playing them.

You can play a "signed 16 bit little endian 44.1kHz audio (i.e. CD audio)" through the Audiophile as long as you have an application that supports it.

[matt_garman]

File types are not supported by a sound card, they are supported by the application that is playing them.

Right, but at some level you are sending a bit stream to the actual hardware. I believe this is the PCM data. That is my question: what raw data formats are supported by the Audiophile 24/96?

You can play a "signed 16 bit little endian 44.1kHz audio (i.e. CD audio)" through the Audiophile as long as you have an application that supports it.

Given my clarification above, is this still correct? For what it's worth, I am looking at this from a "bit perfect" perspective: I want to send the exact data from an audio CD to the 2496's without any software modifications, i.e. no resampling or format changes.

Thanks!
Matt

[JA]

Applications can send PCM, AC-3, or DTS to the Audiophile. In ASIO mode, the card and driver are bit perfect because the audio is not passed through the kernel mixer at all; and is therefore not modified or resampled by the kernel. In all other driver modes (with the exception of playing an AC-3 Dolby Digital, or DTS surround encoded format through the device in WDM or MME mode) the audio is technically NOT bit perfect.

[matt_garman]

Applications can send PCM, AC-3, or DTS to the Audiophile. In ASIO mode, the card and driver are bit perfect because the audio is not passed through the kernel mixer at all; and is therefore not modified or resampled by the kernel. In all other driver modes (with the exception of playing an AC-3 Dolby Digital, or DTS surround encoded format through the device in WDM or MME mode) the audio is technically NOT bit perfect.

So in ASIO mode, what format(s) of PCM data---signed/unsiged, big/little endian, sample rate---are supported?

Thanks!

[JA]

It will pass whatever it receives from the application without modifying it. big/little endian, at samples rates from 8-96k.