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xxalanxx
Avid Contributor I
January 24, 2020
Answered

Port bit perfect?

  • January 24, 2020
  • 23 replies
  • 4635 views

As the ZP90 is being bricked very soon, does anyone know if the Port is bit-perfect?

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Best answer by ratty

In Fixed Volume the Port fills the top 16 bits on the S/PDIF only. The remaining bits are 0. The 16 bits are what comes out of the decoder, so basically it’s transparent.

Note that Variable Volume at 100% is not the same. 

23 replies

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ratty
ratty
June 14, 2020

More specifically, as per the tagged answer, it means that what comes out of the decoder is passed straight through without modification. No volume adjustment, no limiting, no EQ. 

So where the encoding is lossless it should indeed mean that what comes out as PCM matches what went in as PCM. 

Kumar
June 14, 2020

So there should be no difference heard between Port and Connect where both are in fixed volume mode supplying a digital stream to an external DAC. Or compared to any other streamer at any price point that is also bit perfect, operating in the same manner. Barring defective units of course.

I can understand that there could be audible differences, however unlikely these days, where the internal DAC is in use to supply analog signals, where EQ is set to flat in both cases. And specifically, it seems very unlikely that Sonos would have done anything to have the Port sound different(worse) than the Connect to extent of the claims that are flying around. But that is for another thread.

jgatie
jgatie
June 14, 2020

Hence the incredulity when people claim gross subjective differences between the Connect and Port when using an external DAC.  

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