Nope you’re not, upsampling cannot add any info that’s not already on the recording and it does not turn Redbook into hi rez.
CDT3 MK3 Question
The Jay's Audio CDT3 Mk3 transport has a toggle switch for upsampling Redbook Cd's to 176.4. Played into my Holo May KTE DAC in PLL mode this sounds better to me than Redbook. The screen on the Holo May shows "176.4" when the transport is activated with the toggle. The Holo May is set to NOS (non-oversampling) so that theoretically there is no burden of playing two different converters simultaneously or one converter needlessly.
Early in my journey I was unknowingly doing that, and there would be chirps after awhile which I eventually assumed were due to overstraining conversion processes within the DAC. I am assuming that the transport is doing the conversion and then handing that conversion off to the DAC which then doesn't have anything else to do but play the file as it was handed to it.
After this error was figured out, a 44.1 K Redbook CD (.wav files) played with the 176.4 toggle in the "on" position sounds superior to CD's played with the toggle off (44.1k.)
My question is this: does the CDT3 MK3 upsampling process in this set-up do more than just "pad" the original file with extra unneeded zeros? I read somewhere that this seemingly redundant process can lower noise floor a tad but nothing much else. However, according to my ears the conversion improves some obvious parameters - improved dynamics that aren't overly "sharp," better separation of instruments, more accurate musical tone, more nuance and expression in voices, an overall smoother and more relaxed performance.
Am I missing a certain logic here?
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I enlisted my wife to be part of a blind study this morning. The upsampling toggle switch on the CDT Mk3 is on the back of the transport, and it makes no audible noise when clicked up and down. She would be toggling the switch up and down in no particular order and would be asking me at each rest point of her choosing whether the toggle was in the up position or down position. Down is 44.1. Up is 176.4. I also placed a cloth cover over the front display on the Holo May DAC, so that the I could not see the state of the sampling. The test was simple. She was to toggle the switch up and down in no particular order while I listened, At any point of her choosing she would ask me whether the toggle was in the up or down position while I listened to the music. We were listening to the first track of James Taylor’s album "October Road" which has always been one of my favorite test tracks in general. Since my wife loves to mess with my head, I was confident that she would randomize the heck out of her toggling. Since the toggle takes about 5 seconds to refresh the DAC screen we had to "pause" the track whenever its position was changed. She was free to say "pause," wait 5 seconds for the screen to update even though she had not changed the position of the toggle and vice versa. After about 20 cycles and swtcheroos - whether or not there had been a switcheroo, I asked her how I had done. She was somewhat annoyed that she had not been able to fool me. I correctly identified the position of the toggle every time. The difference was so obvious that even she - who does not pay any audiophilic attention to music - could hear differences. I am wondering whether R2R DACS such as my Holo May are more musically agreeable to upsampling and also whether the GanFet amps such my Audions are also more sensitive to upsampling. The arguable technicalities, however, are not really my concern here. If it sounds better - I do it. https://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/upsampling-vs-oversampling-for-digital-audio
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