Minidsp flex USB input sounds worse than optical, why?

[NJ coffee roaster]

I stream Spotify lossless from my MacBook Pro for listening, normally use the optical out of my samsung tv connected to the minidsp for Spotify, as it seems to be totally transparent. When I plug in a USB cable from my MacBook Pro and play the same material, I get significantly less detailed sound, its similar to listening to a lower bitrate compression despite Spotify still being set to lossless.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why this is, I would assume the same digital signal totally unaltered via optical or usb would sound identical. Anyone have any ideas as to what's going on?

 

[JRowland]

Have you configured your Audio MIDI set up to match the USB output to the format you are trying to play? iOS does this automatically but the computers do not.

 

[NJ coffee roaster]

Have you configured your Audio MIDI set up to match the USB output to the format you are trying to play? iOS does this automatically but the computers do not.

Thanks for helping, its currently on 2ch 24 bit 48khz

 

[JRowland]

Thanks for helping, its currently on 2ch 24 bit 48khz

Spotify I think streams lossless the same as Apple at 44.1kHz? Maybe try that just to see if they sound the same then. I'm purely guessing at this point, way out of my wheelhouse.

 

[NJ coffee roaster]

Spotify I think streams lossless the same as Apple at 44.1kHz? Maybe try that just to see if they sound the same then. I'm purely guessing at this point, way out of my wheelhouse.

I tried every setting in the midi output options, no major difference, streaming to the tv via optical still sounds far better, when I would assume the opposite.