Up, over, and resampling


I tried asking this elsewhere and got a few anecdotes (more are always welcome), but I was really hoping for some links to technical papers (that I may not fully grasp. I haven’t kept up my college calculus.)

Does anyone have links to educational articles or papers on upsampling, oversampling, or resampling? I know there’s no new information generated, but it still theoretically helps DAC performance, right? Is there a downside as long as the implementation is solid? And what qualifies as correct?

I had a CD player many years ago that had an upsampling add on board. Impossible to quickly A/B, but it certainly seemed to enhance the experience enough that I had zero regrets with the upgrade. I think it converted redbook CD to 24/192. So I’ve had a positive early experience, But I see NOS DACs are crowed about, while there are others embracing a more is better approach  

I’m trying to research a little because I finally got around to reading some of the manual for my new streamer. (So I don’t screw up ripping all my CDs for, hopefully, the last time.) I realized it has options for resampling during playback. If I’m using the USB output it always sends at 32bit but can also goose PCM up to 8x (384kHz max). S/PIDF output is bumped to a maximum of 24/192. I don’t hear a big obvious difference, but I haven’t spent much time looking for one either. Without any DSP down the chain is resampling really worth it? And if I were to some day splurge and get an M Scaler or similar would it make sense to disable any resampling by my streamer in favor of a presumably better dedicated component?

Because it will be asked. My virtual system is mostly current. CD player was an Ah! Njoe Tjoeb, that was mothballed years ago when the transport started getting twitchy. The streamer is an AURALiC Aries G1.1. DACs are Chord Qutest or Soekris dac1421.

cat_doorman

Showing 1 response by barts

@cat_doorman 

I would do a serious listening test of the same CD with different sample rates. Don't think there will much difference if any.

Depending on the size of your collection (and other CDs you may borrow) you will end up with a sizable amount of data.  I understand storage is cheap and getting cheaper but I would also start out with two copies (anticipating failure!).  I'm kind of a belt and suspenders guy.

Regards,

barts