The Audio Quality sheet
Most players tell you a file is “lossless” and leave it there. BitDek shows you the whole signal path, from the file on your device to the output you’re hearing.
Opening the sheet
Section titled “Opening the sheet”
In the full player, look under the scrub bar. A technical readout shows the current track’s format:
- Lossless files:
FLAC • 96.0 kHz • 24-bit - Lossy files:
MP3 • 320 kbps
Tap it to open the Audio Quality sheet.
The signal path
Section titled “The signal path”The sheet traces five stages, top to bottom:
- SOURCE. Your file’s actual properties.
- PROCESSING. Appears only when the equalizer is on.
- HANDOFF. What BitDek delivers to iOS.
- CORE AUDIO. Apple’s audio system.
- OUTPUT. The device you’re hearing.
Together they show exactly what happens to your audio and where quality could change.
SOURCE: Your file
Section titled “SOURCE: Your file”The SOURCE stage shows the file’s real audio properties. BitDek measures these from the audio stream itself when you import, not from the file’s tags. Tags can lie. The stream can’t.
Two badges can appear here:
- Lossless marks FLAC, ALAC, WAV, and AIFF files.
- Hi-Res marks anything with a sample rate above 48 kHz.
For lossy files, the bitrate shown is an estimate derived from the file. It can differ slightly from the encoder’s nominal rate.
PROCESSING: Only if you ask
Section titled “PROCESSING: Only if you ask”This stage appears only when the equalizer is engaged. It shows “10-Band Equalizer,” an Enhanced badge, and a thumbnail of your EQ curve.
No equalizer, no processing stage. Nothing touches your audio that you didn’t turn on yourself.
HANDOFF: What iOS receives
Section titled “HANDOFF: What iOS receives”HANDOFF shows the sample rate actually delivered to the system, read live from the hardware. One of two badges appears:
- Lossless Passthrough. A lossless file is playing through a wired USB DAC. Audio reaches the DAC at the file’s native sample rate, with no resampling.
- Standard. Every other combination. A lossy source, or any output that isn’t a wired DAC.
CORE AUDIO and OUTPUT
Section titled “CORE AUDIO and OUTPUT”CORE AUDIO is Apple’s audio system. The sheet labels it a black box, because that’s what it is. Every iOS app hands audio to the system here, and BitDek is honest about where its control ends.
OUTPUT shows your current device by name and type. The type tells you the quality ceiling:
| Output | What it means for your audio |
|---|---|
| Wired DAC | A USB audio device. Full resolution, no resampling |
| Wired Headphones | The analog headphone path, which on current iPhones means a 3.5 mm adapter. The adapter holds the DAC |
| Line Out | Analog line-level output through a dock or accessory |
| Bluetooth A2DP (Lossy) | Re-encoded to a lossy codec for transmission |
| AirPlay | Re-encoded to AAC at 256 kbps |
| Built-in Speaker | Limited to 48 kHz |
Bluetooth appears under the exact profile in use, so headphones and car stereos usually read Bluetooth A2DP (Lossy) rather than plain Bluetooth.
A short note at the bottom of the sheet explains your current route. On Bluetooth, for example: “Wireless connections use AAC encoding. Connect a wired DAC for lossless passthrough.”
It updates live
Section titled “It updates live”Switch outputs mid-track and the sheet redraws for the new route. Plug in a DAC, and HANDOFF and OUTPUT update to show what’s actually happening now.
Why “Lossless Passthrough” and not “bit-perfect”?
Section titled “Why “Lossless Passthrough” and not “bit-perfect”?”iOS always sits between an app and the audio hardware. No iOS app can truthfully promise bit-perfect output, so BitDek doesn’t. What it claims is exactly what it delivers: your file’s native sample rate and bit depth, handed to the system untouched.
For the details on each format, see Supported audio formats.