What sample rate/bit depth is worth using?

[booshtukka]

I know this topic has been covered a bunch of times. Over optical, what's the maximum sample rate/bit depth that the Phantoms are actually able to honour?

For Dante I have 48k/PCM 24. Would 96k/PCM 32 achieve anything, or just be downsampled and a waste of bandwidth?

[njaiswal]

I'm using 48k/PCM 24 because that's the max my Symetrix can support. I haven't tried 96K/ PCM 32... have you toggled between the 2? Do you hear a difference?

[booshtukka]

I haven’t spent enough time trying. Probably not. But it would feel nice if I knew it were achieving anything. If the Phantoms were downsampling though would be a waste of bandwidth and processing power.

[struts]

The Phantoms, over optical, can indeed handle a maximum sample rate/bit depth of 96k/PCM 24. However, it's essential to note that the Dante setup operates at 48k/PCM 24, which might lead to confusion. While switching to 96k/PCM 32 theoretically increases the sample rate and bit depth, it won't bring any tangible benefits in this scenario. The higher settings would simply be downsampled to match the Dante's capabilities, making it essentially a waste of bandwidth. So, in practical terms, sticking to 48k/PCM 24 for Dante would suffice, ensuring efficient use of resources without compromising quality.

Under DOS the maximum resolution the Phantoms support via any input is 24/48, anything above that is downsampled.  In optical direct mode (which bypasses DOS) via the Toslink input the Phantoms will definitely accept material with sampling rates above 48kS/s, although how much of this is actually making it through all the digital processing is impossible to verify given that we can only measure the acoustic output up to the upper limit of the Gold tweeters, 27kHz.  

A few years ago @streamy tested his Phantoms in optical direct mode and found they would accept 24/96 and 24/192 material without complaint.  He was able to measure acoustic output at 25kHz (equating to 50kS/s), thereby proving that the downsampling to 24/48 was not occurring but unfortunately not proving what was actually happening.  

Phantoms do not support 32 bit material in any mode.  

That's about all we know.