How do you convert 192Khz audio to 96Khz?

[pm-r]

I only found it by specifically Googling for that name. Supposedly, and I have no way to confirm this, it works on previous OS releases and apparently on the next one but not on Monterey

I am a bit puzzled and curious about your problem, but surely in your Googling you must have come across the statement regarding iTunes, and presumably any Associated files :

iTunes isn't supported on macOS 10.15 Catalina or later, i.e. Big Sur or Monterey.

And as for your other problems, you can probably help yourself by answering some of the questions some of the members have been asking of you.


- Patrick
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[Slydude]

I don't have any answer for the library file issue yet. This article however might address some of the confusion about playback of hi res audio,

How to listen to Apple Music in up to 24-bit/192 kHz - the best DAC, headphones and speakers for hi-res lossless audio - RouteNote Blog

While Dolby Atmos spatial audio is compatible on most of Apple and Beats speakers and headphones, lossless audio is a different story.

routenote.com

 

[rbpeirce]

Apparently. Audio MIDI only shows up to 96 kHz which ties into what I've read so it was a logical, if wrong, conclusion.

 

[krs]

Getting back to the original question

Hi-Res FLAC Converter - Easy to Play, Convert 24/96, 24/192 FLAC on Mac, Windows

Tips on playing, sharing or converting High Resolution FLAC files on Mac or Windows OS. Easy to convert 24/192 and 24/96 flac audio to 16/44.1 or 16/48.

www.bigasoft.com

 

[rbpeirce]

Apparently. Audio MIDI only shows up to 96 kHz which ties into what I've read so it was a logical, if wrong, conclusion.

I should have quoted what I was replying to! The statement was that a 192 kHz Apple file would play on a Mac and that what I read was wrong.

 

[rbpeirce]

Getting back to the original question

Hi-Res FLAC Converter - Easy to Play, Convert 24/96, 24/192 FLAC on Mac, Windows

Tips on playing, sharing or converting High Resolution FLAC files on Mac or Windows OS. Easy to convert 24/192 and 24/96 flac audio to 16/44.1 or 16/48.

www.bigasoft.com

It appears I don't really have a problem playing my 192 kHz aif files on my M1 Mac. However, checking out your link, the web page implies this is strictly for flac files. I didn't download the app so I can't be sure of that.

 

[ferrarr]

never mind.

 

[krs]

It appears I don't really have a problem playing my 192 kHz aif files on my M1 Mac.

Based on the little I know on the subject:
The newer Macs (like the M1) will play 192 K files, the older ones won't
However, the audio quality of these files is essentially the same
But the 192 K file is much bigger
So if the storage is limited, downsampling is very useful with no loss of quality

Boy - this is confusing

Play high sample rate audio on your Mac - Apple Support

The hardware digital-to-analog converter (DAC) built into compatible Mac computers supports sample rates of up to 96 kHz.

support.apple.com

One has to dig deeper to really understand all this

 

[pm-r]

Boy - this is confusing

Thanks...
I'm certainly relieved to read and discover that I was not the only one confused by that Apple support article.
Thanks for the confirmation...

BTW: I later found some good explanations including this one:

48kHz vs 96kHz: Differences, Which To Use (And WHY)

Maybe you always use the default setting of 44.1 kHz?

producerhive.com

- Patrick
=======

 

[krs]

I have read this detail on the net in a couple of places (includes of course more current Macs as well):

Play high sample rate digital audio on Mac computers The audio hardware in some MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and iMac computers supports 176.4 kHz and 192 kHz digital audio when connected using optical output.These computers support up to 192 kHz sample rate for audio playback:

• MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) through MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) through MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
• iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2014) through iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2014)
• iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015)
• iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) through iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
• Mac Pro (Late 2013)
• Mac mini (Late 2014)

To set your Mac to play high sample rate audio:

1. Connect one end of a TOSLINK optical cable to the headphone port on your Mac, and connect the other end to your audio device, such as an AV receiver.
2. Open Audio MIDI Setup, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
3. Select your audio device from the list on the left side of the Audio Devices window.
4. If necessary, choose “Use this device for sound output” from the Action pop-up menu .
5. Select a sample rate, such as 176400.0 Hz or 192000.0 Hz, from the Format pop-up menu.

If you have a MAC, you don't need a DAC | Play high sample... | Drop

Play high sample rate digital audio on Mac computers The audio hardware in some MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and iMac computers supports 176.4 kHz and 192 kHz...

drop.com

 

[rbpeirce]

I have read this detail on the net in a couple of places (includes of course more current Macs as well):

If you have a MAC, you don't need a DAC | Play high sample... | Drop

Play high sample rate digital audio on Mac computers The audio hardware in some MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and iMac computers supports 176.4 kHz and 192 kHz...

drop.com

Actually, my 14" M1 MBP was able to play a 192 kHz air file to the earphone output. I didn't try the internal speakers but I imagine they would work as well.

Size is a factor but I only have 9 192 kHz tracks.

This has been very confusing to me.

 

[pm-r]

This has been very confusing to me.

I dare say that you are not the only one that has been confused by the 192 kHz digital audio topic when using a Mac or with compatible add-ons.

At 82 years of age, I don't know why I am interested in learning how or why as I doubt very much if my good quality hearing aids could actually cope with such a high sample rate anyway, and I'm pretty sure my ears wouldn't be able to tell of any difference. They are only going to hear what they can hear and I am sure it is nowhere near that top end.

I hope your ears are younger and work better, and treat them well.



- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

@Patrick, the sampling rate is not the sound frequency, it's how often the sound is digitized. Normal hearing is from 20 to 20,000 Hz, and even if you sampled at 192Khz, the sound you can hear is still going to be in the range.

Some audiophiles claim they can hear the difference in sound quality between the various sampling rates, but that is entirely subjective and the subject of some (mild) dispute beyond a certain sampling level. But, it's hard to argue as it is entirely subjective.

 

[pm-r]

@Patrick, the sampling rate is not the sound frequency, it's how often the sound is digitized.

Thanks for the clarification Jake, even though I already realized the fact, but so many seem to expound on the fact that a greater sampling rate always produces a better sound.

It seems to be some sort of old tradition that "bigger or more is always better".

But I am not going to elaborate on that expression or how it relates to various things thanks...



- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

Thanks for the clarification Jake, even though I already realized the fact, but so many seem to expound on the fact that a greater sampling rate always produces a better sound.

It seems to be some sort of old tradition that "bigger or more is always better".

But I am not going to elaborate on that expression or how it relates to various things thanks...



- Patrick
=======

The challenge is that "better" is subjective. As I said, audiophiles say they can hear the difference between a digital recording and an analog recording, or between a CD and a vinyl record, with the latter being "better" in both cases. I can't hear the difference, myself, never have, so I can't say if it's true or not. I don't know if anybody has done a blind test to verify the claim or not.

Anyone interested can read more about sampling rate here: What’s sampling rate? And why does it matter for music?

In that article it says this:

We’ve already touched on the accuracy issue (i.e. the higher the sampling rate, the higher the quality), but it’s not quite that simple. Sampling rate is directly related to frequency, in other words the highest sound that can be accurately reproduced.

Let’s look at the common 44.1kHz figure we discussed earlier.

This allows sounds of up to 22kHz to be played back. The reason it’s this frequency and not 44.1kHz is all down to the Nyquist–Shannon Theorem. Those brainboxes had this to say about it:

“If a system uniformly samples an analog signal at a rate that exceeds the signal’s highest frequency by at least a factor of two, the original analog signal can be perfectly recovered from the discrete values produced by sampling.”

Note that it says with a sampling rate of just 44.1kHz, all sounds up to 22kHz can be played back and the analog signal can be "perfectly recovered" from the discrete values produced by sampling. So, for my money, any sampling rate beyond 44.1kHz is just not needed.

But audiophiles disagree. And that is why there are horse races....

 

[Toroidal]

This was an interesting thread to summarize the main points of information that were true, namely that a relatively newer Mac will play uncompressed 192kHz audio natively, iTunes and Music are two different apps from different time periods, and nobody can tell the difference between CD quality and audiophile quality except people who listen excruciatingly for decades to music and audio in specifically controlled environments. Quite frankly, I doubt that anyone can hear the difference between an uncompressed source file of any sampling frequency and an Apple encoded .m4a file using the current compression scheme, except those special hearing individuals mentioned prior.
A neat trick is to highlight the 192kHz AIFF files, control click, scroll down the menu that pops up and click on Encode Selected Audio Files. Then you can make a Hi-Res .m4a file that is much smaller and you won't even be able to notice any degradation in sound quality. The resulting file will be in the same location as the source file.
And let me add that anytime you have an audio file you can select in your Finder, just press space bar and it should play via Quick Look.