Plz explain 24bit too me!

JMRoe · 20 Jul 2010 at 17:27

Hi, I have a Asus xonar ds sound card 24 bit, but would like to know a few things about bit rate, and sample rate?

First i have read quite a lot about 24bit and kinda understand what it means, but does setting the default format in advanced option in sound menu to 24bit improve mp3 playback, i ask because everything i read relates to recording and not standard mp3 playback!

And sample rate, is this only for recording too? I read so much and really confuse myself with the actual understanding (benifits) of the two?

I dont record nothing my soul purpose of having this card is best sounding music quality, and also to relieve cpu usage in gaming.

And if anyone has this card could you tell what to set it too for optimal sound quality.

Thanks in advanced

Marsman · 20 Jul 2010 at 18:00

I have a Xonar too. I have it set to 24bit and 96kHz. Using 192kHz I feel is pointless, as nothing or very little is recorded with such a high sample rate. CD's for eg, are 44.1kHz. You might ask, why have it set to 96kHz, if the music is ripped from a CD which is 44.1kHz? Well DVD's can use upto 192kHz, but only in stereo. 96kHz is more common, as that's the maximum sample rate for 5.1. so it's best to leave at 96kHz really.

Similar applies to bit rate. CD's are 16bit, but DVD's can have 24bit audio. So best to have it at 24bit all the time, rather keep swapping. It can be very hard to distinguish between 16bit/44.1kHz and 24bit/96kHz. But to save changing between bit and sample rates when watching a DVD or listening to MP3's etc, best just to use 24bit/96kHz.

AbsenceJam · 20 Jul 2010 at 18:40

Higher bitdepths and sample rates are useful for recording (but not using something like a Xonar). For playback they make no difference because you can't hear any difference even if you actually have audio of that quality.
You can get BD's with 24/96 but it's nothing but a gimmick.

Set it to whatever you want; makes no difference to audio quality.

JMRoe · 20 Jul 2010 at 19:18

thats what i wanterd to know, so the sound quality is down to the sounds cards processor and nothing to do with 24bit and sample rates is this correct?

AbsenceJam · 21 Jul 2010 at 00:08

JMRoe said:
thats what i wanterd to know, so the sound quality is down to the sounds cards processor and nothing to do with 24bit and sample rates is this correct?

If you set it to 24/192 your card just resamples the audio before outputting it. Doesn't affect quality but can add latency (though not really a worry if you're not doing audio production).