Windows 8 / Ultrafi DAC41 issue - 48K limit on resolution

[skumber]

An interesting problem with windows 8 and my ultrafi dac (which has no problems with windows 7). Attach the usb cable, it detects, then the driver install hangs in the middle. It will stay there for an hour if you let it, but I cancel. It shows up in the sound devices fine, but in the properties the resolution is limited to 16/48K. Will not play any hi-res material unless downsampled to 48k, as instructed by the driver, obviously. Has happened to 2 installs now (both samsung notebooks) but my feeling is it is driver signing or something. Any clues or insights into Windows 8 usb audio drivers? Thanks much in advance for your help.

[phofman]

From what I could google out your DAC is 48/16 only a new dac...Ultra Fi DAC-41 | AudiogoN Forums . It does not support any higher resolution, I do not know if it accepts 44.1/16.

 

If the driver does not resample automatically to 48kHz (i.e. if it accepts only stream native to the DAC), you will have to instruct your playback application to do so. E.g. foobar can do that.

[skumber]

Thanks phofman. It is a 24/192 dac and quite good with hi-res (redbook not as good), but I thought I'd plug in into the mac to see what happens. Hey only 48K! Lets plug it into windows 7 - hey 48K limit also!. So I'm betting there is a clock issue in the dac. thanks to all who read this, problem (mostly) solved.

[phofman]

It is a 24/192 dac

 

Is it indeed? All the symptoms you report would suggest the guy in the discussion is right - regular 48/16, with resampling from any format done by the PC driver. It is very simple to check - just plug it into any linux machine (booted from live CD/live flash) and the linux usb-audio driver will report all native modes of the usb soundcard. OSX may have a similar functionality too.

[phofman]

You said the installation of proprietary driver on windows 8 failed. Nothing unusual, that happens for many non-win8 drivers. But that means your device used stock USB audio driver. Just like in OSX. In both cases you got only 48kHz. All that would support the notion of on-the-fly software resampling in the proprietary drivers.

[skumber]

You said the installation of proprietary driver on windows 8 failed. Nothing unusual, that happens for many non-win8 drivers. But that means your device used stock USB audio driver. Just like in OSX. In both cases you got only 48kHz. All that would support the notion of on-the-fly software resampling in the proprietary drivers.

 

 

Interesting. It was a non-proprietary driver, whatever windows 8 provides. There is no proprietary driver for this unit. I've played many many highres in mediamonkey where sample rate is displayed and it was native 24/176, 24/96, etc. Perhaps that was the base resolution of the source. I know it is a nos chip dac; it is entirely possible I've been misinformed the whole time.