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Option to keep the output sample rate as the same as source sample rate


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Let's be honest here, upsampling a 44.1/48kHz track all the way to 192kHz doesn't improve the actual sound quality. Just unnecessary resampling, and in some cases, it decreases the quality (except for some very good resamplers, such as SoX). But still resources are spent on unnecessary resampling.

But the reason we set Poweramp output sampling rate to higher than 48kHz so that Hi-res tracks with greater sample rate doesn't get downsampled to 48kHz.

So it would be nice if there was an option to keep the same output sample rate frequency as the source file. And for files with sample rate less than 48kHz (i.e. 44.kHz CD quality files), it can upsample to 48kHz as Android's default sample rate is 48kHz.

 

For example, there is a file with 96kHz sample rate, I am asking Poweramp to output it at 96kHz. And for a file with 44.1kHz it would resample to 48kHz as Android likes it that way. I mean minimum frequency could be 48kHz.

Obviously I am asking to implement this for Hi-res output and AAudio output (if possible).

Edited by John Titor
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This suggestion has come up multiple times in the past, but Max has said there would be too many potential problems with glitching when sample rates change between tracks (especially in Shuffled playback), errors in crossfading and gapless playback, and other issues. So while I wouldn't necessarily rule it out forever, it's not something that's on the to-do list at the moment.

Andre

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  • 2 weeks later...

Those are not problems without solutions.  The easiest would be a warning next to the setting that simply states, "Enabling this feature could cause problems with playback and crossfading if a playlist contains files encoded at different sample rates." 

Personally, I would love it if Poweramp had a "Frequency Follows Source" feature like Neutron.  Honestly, it's a bit ridiculous to have to set the playback frequency to the highest rate file in my library and then force my hardware to work harder than it needs to for everything else with zero improvement in playback quality.  This is the reason I stick with Neutron even though I really like the Poweramp interface.

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And I suspect that in 99% of cases, all of the songs from a currently playing source (e.g. one album, or one folder) would most likely have the same sample rates as each other anyway. So other than shuffled playback, it would not be a common occurrence for rates to keep changing between tracks.

If such a feature ever did get implemented I would assume that enabling it would automatically disable any Crossfade options for non-matching changes. There would also need to be some thought given to devices which don't support certain frequency/bit-depth combinations (e.g. Samsung, where there is a locked pattern so it would not be possible to switch to match a file encoded at, for example, 96kHz/24-bit)

However until the situation changes, I can only repeat what Max has said in the past when this question has come up, sorry.

Andre

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On 3/23/2021 at 3:50 PM, andrewilley said:

This suggestion has come up multiple times in the past, but Max has said there would be too many potential problems with glitching when sample rates change between tracks (especially in Shuffled playback), errors in crossfading and gapless playback, and other issues. So while I wouldn't necessarily rule it out forever, it's not something that's on the to-do list at the moment.

Andre

It is true, as I have wanted the same thing over the course of messing with Poweramp and Neutron today. The SoX resampling is sometimes unnecessary for CD tracks and good when ensuring hi-res files isn't gonna get down sampled. But I would still much rather not have fade and suffer glitching when switching formats if that means I can save some battery life.

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