Why is dither grayed out on R14?

[StLouisRod]

I just paid for and upgraded my expired trial version of R14, and now I notice that under the Bit Depth effect setting, the Apply Dither field is grayed out. It was selectable (triangular vs. rectangular) during the trial period, so what happened to it? Is it no longer working? Do I need to completely reinstall everything? Does it do dithering no matter what, and if so, what type? I need to convert a 24bit audio file to 16bit.

Thanks!

[Spoon]

Re: Why is dither grayed out on R14?

This option requires 'dBpoweramp Reference'

[StLouisRod]

Re: Why is dither grayed out on R14?

I suppose another $12 to upgrade wouldn't kill me, but I went ahead and down-converted a 24bit/96k DVD-Audio album to 16bit/48 and compared the before and after and honestly couldn't tell much difference other than the slight narrowing of separation and clarity from dropping the sample frequency not bit-size.

So putting aside your monetary bias, has dithering during 24 to 16 conversion noticeably improved your sound files? If it's not dithering, then does it simply drop the upper 8 bits, and what is the sonic impact of doing so?

Thanks!

[Spoon]

Re: Why is dither grayed out on R14?

Dithering is used by all labels when mastering CDs, as to if you can notice or not I cannot comment on that as I have not done listening tests, I am sure others have done so.