Anomaly - Sample Rate vs. Playback Speed (Windows 10 test tone)

[Petrichor]

Hi folks,

I recently purchased the Khadas Tone Board and JDS Atom amp thanks to ASR.

I've noticed a bit of an anomaly on Windows 10 that's puzzling me. Perhaps others using Windows 10 can confirm this.
There's a significant change in the playback speed of the Windows "Test" tone, as the Sample Rate is increased. There is a progressive increase all the way from 44.1Khz through 384Khz, where 44.1Khz is very "rushed" while 384Khz is slower/clearer. 44.1Khz also has a few "pops" associated with it. I do not remember this happening with my Essence STX, but my memory fails me.
The above can be configured by navigating as follows: Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound > Playback Tab > Khadas Tone Control > Advanced > Test (button)

I cannot make out any significant differences in regular audio playback so I doubt this affects anything. Nevertheless, it is curious that sampling rate affects the test tone alone.

Configuration (only adding what I think is relevant - can add more as required):
- Windows 10
- KTB connected only via USB

Questions:
1) Is this happening on your Windows 10 machines as well? Please share the DAC you used as well
2) What are some possible reasons for this?
3) Is it better to set the highest possible sample rate for the KTB? (I've heard that it's better to match sample rate to the source audio)

 

[companyja]

I tried it with the Fiio K5 Pro and there's no difference between any of the sample rates in regards to the test sound - sometimes it will slightly pop as it changes from the left to the right channel, sometimes it won't, regardless of what sample rate or bit depth it is set to.

From what I've gathered it is actually quite uncertain how good or bad windows resampling is, what is most likely is that it used to be pretty bad, and over time in Windows 10 it became a lot better; in any case there's no reason to use a sample rate such as 384khz as I seriously doubt there are files in that sample rate available for purchase anywhere. Oversampling in windows can only really introduce unwanted artifacts so it's fine to go with either 44.1 (most audio files) or 48 (most video files/video games).