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I know that every sound card converts digital data to analog sound using a DAC chip. This chip's quality greatly determines the sound quality.

Is there a way to query parameters such as bit resolution and sample rate from the OS (mine is GNU/Linux)? I know I can search the web for specs / datasheets but I was wondering whether this information is available to the OS.

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  • Knowing the available parameters doesn't actually determine the quality of the DAC itself. Built-in DACs are usually pretty low quality. You could get a bit of a feel for it if you happen to have one that can work at higher bit- & sample-rates 24-bit, 88.2kHz & upwards. pretty much all of them will do 16-bit 44.1 or 48k. idk nix specifically, but this info should be available to your Sound control panel. These are the options available on a mid-range external DAC, on a Mac - i.sstatic.net/7WZFE.png
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Mar 26, 2020 at 12:32
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    Modern PC means 24bit 192KHz realtek chip with professional layout. Low cost external USB sound cards means 16bit 48KHz with poor layout.
    – jw_
    Commented Mar 26, 2020 at 13:02
  • Thanks for commenting and confirming that this info is at least available to Darwin's kernel - I hope it's available for the Linux' kernel as well.
    – Doron Behar
    Commented Mar 26, 2020 at 16:12

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You can use this script to list the capabilities of each of your audio devices: https://gitlab.com/sonida/alsa-capabilities

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