Measurement&Review of Luxury&Precision W1/W2 Portable USB DAC-Amp

[Jimbob54]

you can always dim this clear plastic a little bit yourself. personally i'll leave it "as is" as long as it's not too obtrusive.

Do you have one? Does it have a linked app or some complex button press matrix?

 

[alekksander]

Do you have one? Does it have a linked app or some complex button press matrix?

not yet, but ordering.

 

[leonidas]

Is there a fix to the bug that the W2 always reports 32Bit in the display, no matter the original bitrate of the song played? The khz value is correct, though.

 

[staticV3]

@leonidas many players will send 32bit audio no matter the file's original bit depth, because doing so has no disadvantages and can actually reduce noise in some cases. Are you sure that your player isn't doing that and that the W2 is really misreporting it?

 

[leonidas]

@leonidas many players will send 32bit audio no matter the file's original bit depth, because doing so has no disadvantages and can actually reduce noise in some cases. Are you sure that your player isn't doing that and that the W2 is really misreporting it?

Thanks for your feedback. I didn't know this was even a good thing. I am using an iPhone 13 Pro, directly connected to the W2 through the original cable. The W2 reports always 32b, no matter the bitrate in Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal. The khz information changes correctly according to the information from the music streaming app.

 

[staticV3]

If you have a Mac or PC, then you can check whether the W2 correctly reports bit depth.
On Mac, you can change bit depth using the MIDI control panel.
On Windows, use the Sound Control Panel.

 

[leonidas]

If you have a Mac or PC, then you can check whether the W2 correctly reports bit depth.
On Mac, you can change bit depth using the MIDI control panel.
On Windows, use the Sound Control Panel.

Lesson learned. Thank you very much.

So it wan't a bug, at all, but the iPhone does output constantly 32b. That's interesting! Connected to my Mac, the W2 showed exactly the bitrate/khz I chose in the MIDI Control Panel.

Is there a quick answer why constant 32bit output is a good thing so Apple chose to go that way?

 

[staticV3]

Is there a quick answer why constant 32bit output is a good thing so Apple chose to go that way?

Applying digital volume attenuation to an audio file with higher bit depth will result in less signal degradation.

Samsung devices for example have an option in the settings to upsample all audio to 32bit. Here you can see what that does to a 1kHz sine wave attenuated by 60dB:

As you can see, with it enabled (white), the noise floor is lower meaning higher SNR.

Since there's no disadvantage in upsampling to higher bit depth, doing so is a no-brainer.

 

[Veri]

Does it do any internal dithering? I guess it is just padding given 16-bit data and use the other bits for digital volume control?

 

[staticV3]

I guess it is just padding given 16-bit data and use the other bits for digital volume control?

My guess as well

 

[leonidas]

Applying digital volume attenuation to an audio file with higher bit depth will result in less signal degradation.

Samsung devices for example have an option in the settings to upsample all audio to 32bit. Here you can see what that does to a 1kHz sine wave attenuated by 60dB:
View attachment 249705
As you can see, with it enabled (white), the noise floor is lower meaning higher SNR.

Since there's no disadvantage in upsampling to higher bit depth, doing so is a no-brainer.

Perfectly explained. Thank you!!