I can’t explain your sound/no sound issue, my friend, but as I read the technical sound guide, SPDIF can accept 192/24...

Yes, the Sound Guide says it will, though it uses the phrase "up to 192kHz" as opposed to "up to and including", which is used for the other inputs.

Oddly, I've discovered it will accept native 192/24 signals through S/PDIF from one of the streaming transports I'm trying out, but not the other, which requires the files to be downsampled to 96/24.

This could mean that one transport is really outputting at 192kHz and the other is merely claiming to, or alternatively that one transport plays nicely with the Lab 90s and the other doesn't.

I can't decide which.

Deleted.

MM

As for S/PDIF generally spoken - if sender and receiver are both spec'd to work at 192/24, you can expect it to work.

Seems not to be the case with one of your streamers.

MM

Yes, it's odd that it isn't working. The streamer in question is the dCS Network Bridge, in case anyone is thinking of trying one out with Lab 90s. I may try it again tomorrow with a different coax cable, though since 192/24 worked fine with the other streamer (Auralic Aries G2.1) I don't think the cable is to blame.

The only thing that makes me think it could be a quirk of the Lab 90s is the use of "up to…" and not "up to and including…" in the Technical Sound Guide, which seems to imply that S/PDIF will sometimes work at 192kHz and sometimes not.

Good catch, my friends. Very strange... the SPDIF blurb does say “up to 192” but, for example, USB Audio says “up to and including 192”.

This is a very subtle distinction and I’m not sure why it’s written this way. I’m certain it’s not intended to be misleading so there must be a technical reason, as opposed to a semantics reason, for this. Perhaps Geoff can opine, if he’d be so kind?

Hi,

I finally had time and access to devices to test this.

Firstly, the "up to" and "up to and including" are simply errors on my part... (no conspiracy theories, please...) The Coaxial S/PDIF input can play LPCM at all standard sampling rates up to AND INCLUDING 192 / 24. I know this because, as I type this, I'm listening to high resolution pink noise at 192 kHz / 24 bit sent to the Beolab 90's on  S/PDIF from an RME UFX+ sound card. 192 kHz pink noise is the pinkest of pink noises... ;-)

Reminds me of the joke about a priest, a minister and a rabbit that walk into a bar, and the rabbit says "waitaminute.... I'm a typo...."

I'll add the "and including" to the next version of the TGS so this can calm things down.

As to why the dCS is not working, I have no idea. Whenever I can't get Device A to work with Device B, my first test is to connect it to Device C to find out if it works there. If Device A doesn't work with Devices B and C, then the location of the problem is probably not Device B (Always remember that the common element in all your failed relationships is you...) Of course, if one doesn't have a Device C with which one can test things, then there's no telling whether the problem is in Device A or Device B.

One important thing to remember is that SDIF is not the same as SPDIF (the dCS has both) - but this does not seem to be the issue, since the 192 native files are apparently working. It also appears from the thread that the Auralic is working at 192. So, if this is correct, and since "my" RME card works with the Beolab 90s at 192, I would say that there's something strange going on in the dCS... but I can only guess.

@politician: sorry it took a while to answer this. I just saw your email about it on the weekend, and I wasn't able to test this with the sound card until this morning.

Cheers

-geoff

Thanks for the detailed response, Geoff. I don't have a Device C I can include in the test, but since the Lab 90s can accept 192/24 via the Auralic and since I've tried the dCS with two different coax cables I'm presuming the fault isn't with the Lab 90s or the cable. It's either some quirk of the dCS (which seems quite a fussy piece of kit altogether – there's a long list of things it won't or can't do) or simply that it doesn't play nicely with Lab 90s.

politician wrote:

Thanks for the detailed response, Geoff. I don't have a Device C I can include in the test, but since the Lab 90s can accept 192/24 via the Auralic and since I've tried the dCS with two different coax cables I'm presuming the fault isn't with the Lab 90s or the cable. It's either some quirk of the dCS (which seems quite a fussy piece of kit altogether – there's a long list of things it won't or can't do) or simply that it doesn't play nicely with Lab 90s.

Agreed... but the question that's bugging me is: why not?...

Maybe I should see if the friends I had at dCS 25 years ago are still working there... and whether they still remember me (we weren't THAT close... ) 😁

cheers
-geoff