2 x Phantoms (Gold) + how to stream stereo music at 96kHz?

[peacerocks]

Hi,

I have a pair of Gold Phantoms in the gym and also in the home-office. I want to be able to stream Qobuz or Tidal in the highest resolution.  

Media:
The only offline media that I have is from Qobuz and Tidal downloads and don't use a music server.  
I am running Roon using a Mac mini as a Core in another room.

Electronics:
I have in the same room a BluSound Node X 
I also have an option to pair them over optical using my Marantz processor (I have used this for 5.0 surround before with the Phantoms)

I am running a wifi6 unifi mesh network.

Would love to get some help on how I can run upto 96kHz which I understand is the highest these will support.

thanks so much.

[ragwo]

As far as I know the Phantom can receive 96kHz but downsamples the signal to 48kHz before the internal processing, so I don't know if you will gain anything by sending 96kHz files to the speakers. When I tried 96kHz over optical via a Raspberry Pi with an optical I/O hat vs Roon RAAT 48kHz I could not hear any difference, but ymmw. You could try connecting the BluSound to the Phantoms via optical and play 24/96kHz files, and compare with Roon RAAT.

[lkjam]

Also, if you want a cheaper option than the bluesound, you could go for a Wiim Pro. I personally hear no difference and the chromecast integration is perfect for some quick non audiophile listening + you get tidal connect and roon support.

[peacerocks]

thanks so much. why on earth would someone have it downsample to 48kHz. I thought only Apple did things like that hence needing a DAC for using an iPhone/iPad.

more importantly why advertise 96kHz then? does it serve a purpose?

[ragwo]

Frankly, I have no idea, but I love to speculate. Dowmsampling makes the synchronization easier, and puts less strain on the DSP. Play a 24/96 file in Roon and check out the signal path. Here's a screenshot from another DC user.