What settings would get you the best sound quality?

Okay, so I don't really know too much about audio, but I do care abou tsound quality.
I was poking around in the built in MIDI controller and I was looking at the settings for my MacBook Pro Retina 15" and the options under format where "44100Hz, 48000Hz, 88200Hz, and 96000Hz." I am wandering which of these would be the highest quality sound? I am not sure and don't want to mess anytihing up by setting it wrong.
Also, the other option in the channels. Which is better: 2ch-24 bit integer, 2ch-16 bit integer, or 2ch-32 bit float?
I'm not sure if these are dumb questions, but thanks in advanced!

Have a look at this article, you'll get an extensive comparison of the AAC and MP3 formats and bit rates benchmarked against CD format: Planet of Sound - Quality of AAC audio and MP3
Of the various options iTunes gives, AAC and MP3 are compressed formats so you lose some quality but gain space. AIFF (CD) and WAV are uncompressed so you gain quality at the expense of space. Apple Lossless falls somewhere in between, doesn't compress as much as AAC and MP3 so you gain some space but not as much, however it is claimed to give a quality which is the equal to CD. Of the compressed formats AAC is less widely used at present, if you have a non Apple music player or a newer in-car CD player then MP3 would be the most compatible compressed format: iTunes Encoding Strategies

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I want to take full advantage of my hardware. However, I'm having trouble understanding what settings I need to configure. I've spent several hours reading through wikis and searching online. Ultimately, I'm trying to achieve the highest quality audio output in stereo that's possible with my setup. USB > Behringer UAC202 > RCA out > Audioengine A2
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/etc/mpd.conf contains:
audio_output {
type "oss"
name "UCA202"
device "/dev/oss/usb08bb2902-1/pcm0"
format "44100:16:2" # optional
mixer_device "/dev/mixer"
MPD is still starting as the root user. (I know, I should change that)
The daemon starts, but trying to play any track results in the following error in /var/log/mpd/mpd.log:
May 21 10:46 : output: "UCA202" [oss] failed to play: Write error on /dev/oss/usb08bb2902-1/pcm0: Input/output error
So... any help would be appreciated. Maybe, first of all, do I need to use OSS or should I switch back to alsa? Or maybe something else like jack?
*******EDIT*******
ALSA was the correct choice. The simple solution was to create /etc/asound.conf containing:
pcm.!default{
type rate
slave{
pcm "plughw:0,0"
rate 44100
Then change the audio output settings in mpd.conf to:
audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "MPD ALSA"
device "hw:0,0"
mixer_control "PCM"
With these settings the DAC receives 44.1khz audio and no upmixing occurs. Only one application can make audio output at a time. MPD uses much less CPU.
Last edited by ioos (2012-05-24 23:34:51)

Pajaro wrote:
For good sound quality, flat response is the most important thing. Take a look at qloud, http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=34412, and find yourself a very good microphone.
Then you will probably want to set a global equalizer for your machine. You can try with alsa, http://krustev.net/w/articles/Global_eq … _for_ALSA/.
If ALSA isn't finegrained enough, jack has a lot more flexibility, except for the fact that it doesn't allow you to set default output device, so you will need a helper application to redirect all output connections to your equalizer.
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Pajaro wrote:
For good sound quality, flat response is the most important thing. Take a look at qloud, http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=34412, and find yourself a very good microphone.
Then you will probably want to set a global equalizer for your machine. You can try with alsa, http://krustev.net/w/articles/Global_eq … _for_ALSA/.
If ALSA isn't finegrained enough, jack has a lot more flexibility, except for the fact that it doesn't allow you to set default output device, so you will need a helper application to redirect all output connections to your equalizer.
Well, i would say this is quite subjective. Untouched signal is superior to any equalized sound in my opinion, but i know this debate is never satisfying

What settings would get you the best sound quality?

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