Comment by rz2k
4 days ago
My good enough amplifier and DAC combo claims up to 24bit/192kHz, I use a cheap optical interface from my computer that claims up to 32bit/192kHz, and the streaming service I use serves most albums at 24bit/44.1kHz.
It would have cost the same for the entire stack to be 16bit/44.1kHz at every step, but with excessive resolution I can control the volume anywhere. The bits right before the analog conversion at the end are essentially the same whether I turn down the volume in the software player, the operating system, or the DAC/amplifier.
you might want to see if your DAC re-clocks incoming optical, if not then it's relying on the cheap clock generator from your computer
Some people have claimed to hear an improvement with an external clock on a Wiim Ultra, but I do not think it is possible to re-clock the WiiM Amp Ultra with an outboard clock.
When I play from the computer, I'm not sure whether it is using the clock on my Mac, the clock on the optical interface, or the WiiM's clock. However, I do not notice any difference in fidelity when I use the Qobuz software player on my Mac or use Qobuz Connect to allow the player to directly stream from the source, so either it isn't a difference that I can hear, or the WiiM's internal clock is used for both sources.
That cheap clock source is good enough for 16 GHz PCIE signaling, but Im sure you will be able to hear the jitter!
After that "audio player that lays out the file in contiguous memory to avoid cpu jitter" example from above, this one is my new favourite audiophile trope. "cheap clock on the computer" I giggled.