A Basic question regarding "Digital Input Sample Rates"

[ronorn]

Let's say that I have a USB Cable and a Coax Cable , All Digital from pre amp to a streamer transport.
Need to decide what to use.

The USB Cable can Deliver Higher Samples rates then the Coax ( See photo for example )

For better Audio enjoyment and sound , Do I need to strive for the highest delivery rates ?
As sometime I hear and enjoy better with LESS Rates.

It's a Basic question without compering the streamer or the DAC.
Thanks.

 

[staticV3]

For better Audio enjoyment and sound , Do I need to strive for the highest delivery rates ?

Absolutely not.
48kHz is enough to fully saturate the capabilities of even the most golden of ears.

Anything more that that is, in the context of audio enjoyment, 100% useless.
Its only purpose there is to extract money from audiophiles that don't know any better.

 

[ronorn]

Absolutely not.
48kHz is enough to fully saturate the capabilities of even the most golden of ears.

Anything more that that is, in the context of audio enjoyment, 100% useless.
Its only purpose there is to extract money from audiophiles that don't know any better.

Thank you so much for that. Very appreciated !

 

[bluefuzz]

Do I need to strive for the highest delivery rates ?

No.

16 bit / 44.1 kHz (i.e. CD quality) is plenty for all practical purposes. Higher bit-depth (e.g. 24-bit) can theoretically give a lower noise floor but real world recordings played in real rooms will have a noise floor far higher anyway. Sampling rates higher than 44.1 kHz enable frequencies higher than 20 kHz to be reproduced but since most people over the age of 25 will have difficulty hearing anything above 16 kHz there is little point to being able to play those frequencies.

 

[DVDdoug]

If you have high resolution audio, there's no reason not to use it unless you need to make smaller files.

USB specs can SOMETIMES be dishonest because the operating system and drivers will take care of any conversions and any-old cheap soundcard (USB or built-in) can play high resolution without telling you it's been down-sampled, just like you can print a high-resolution photo on a low-resolution printer.

As sometime I hear and enjoy better with LESS Rates.

You need to make sure it's the same recording, mix, and master. Sometimes the high-resolution version is different and you may not know unless you down-sample yourself.

You probably won't hear a difference between the high-resolution original and a copy down-sampled to "CD quality" in a blind ABX test.

At lower sample rates you start to lose high-frequency information.

At 8-bits you can hear quantization nose. Quantization noise is like analog noise in-that it's most noticeable with quiet sounds (lower signal-to-noise ratio) but unlike analog noise it goes-away completely with digital silence.

Formats like MP3 are lossy compression where information is thrown-away to get a smaller file. A lower bitrate (different from sample rate) means more information has been thrown away.

 

[ronorn]

No.

16 bit / 44.1 kHz (i.e. CD quality) is plenty for all practical purposes. Higher bit-depth (e.g. 24-bit) can theoretically give a lower noise floor but real world recordings played in real rooms will have a noise floor far higher anyway. Sampling rates higher than 44.1 kHz enable frequencies higher than 20 kHz to be reproduced but since most people over the age of 25 will have difficulty hearing anything above 16 kHz there is little point to being able to play those frequencies.

Thanks. !!!

 

[antcollinet]

Was gonna write a reply - but don't really need to. So....

What they said.

 

[ronorn]

Thank you all for your replies.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Sample rates higher that 16/44 are mainly useful for sound editing. Like a lot of audio specs, modern equipment is capable of exceeding it. For ordinary listening purposes the cable choice is a matter of what inputs and outputs are available.

 

[er|κzvio1in]

Regarding sound quality, there is another aspect besides sample rate and bit depth and that is transfer of noise and ground loops. It depends on your setup and the entire chain, but USB can sometimes transfer a lot of noise which destroys the sound quality. I've experienced this myself: even though the sampling rate was much higher using USB, there was so much noise that it sounded like shit compared to using an optical SPDIF/Toslink connection. It was not subtle, but a night & day difference.

 

[ronorn]

I need to choose between USB and Coax based on hearing. This is my conclusion.

 

[voodooless]

I need to choose between USB and Coax based on hearing. This is my conclusion.

No. They will sound identical. Choose whatever is convenient. Usually USB is.