What quality is my HDMI Audio output?

Audio Gear Everything else
1

I need to re-organise my music files (presently mostly Apple Lossless) and I’m not sure which Quality to aim for.

I use Volumio on a headless Pi with files stored on a USB Harddrive. Output is via an HDMI audio extractor from China.

(eBay item - HDMI to AV + Audio Converter Support SPDIF and Coaxial outputs NTSC PAL UK).

I use the Spdif output to connect to my Caimen Gaitorized DAC which is able to handle 24bit / 28 - 96khz files.

I find that (at a push),Volumio, over my system, can play 32bit 196khz and even dsd bit 352.8khz files. What I don’t know is… what is coming out of the Audio extractor (obviously no better than 24/96 or the DAC would not cope).

Does anyone have any information on the Audio extractor, or even better, a fairly simple way of measuring the Spdif output?

2

Hi,

With the stock kernel, the HDMI rate is limited to 16 bits (maybe 24 bits, don’t remember) and 44,1kHz.
A patched kernel will give you higher bit rates (tested up to 192kHz but as my ears can’t go higher than 20kHz (and all my music is sampled at 44,1kHz) I stayed on the stoick kernel.

3

Its depends upon the device.