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Up & Over sampling Is one superior to the other?

I see many contrasting ideas on up sampling, and over sampling. I want to get a DAC quite soon and have gotten the impression from reading reviews, that up sampling is a more forward presentation and can be analytical.... over sampling is more resolving and refined, yet laid back sounding.

Have I the wrong thoughts here? or is therre any truth to those diffs?

Do tubes really make significant diffs over strickly solid state (given all else is resonably the same)?

I thought to try making sure before taking the plunge.

I am most grateful for any help here from those who have had both or either...
blindjim

Showing 6 responses by audioengr

audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Here is what I have experienced:

1) SRC is the best-sounding software upsampler for Foobar2000, at 24/96

2) Hardware upsamplers all sound about the same, not so great IMO, with one exception: for 24/192 upsampling, the SM5847AF chip is wonderful. Implementation is everything though. You can still screw it up with a bad design.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
SRC is Secret Rabbit Code, written by a coder in Australia. It is a plug-in for Foobar2000. Foobar2000 is a free player for computer, the best-sounding of the PC players IMO.

I posted recommendations for the best software combination on my forum, based on feedback from customers and my own listening tests:
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?board=40.0

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Blindjim - In the past I would not necessarily recommend upsamplers in hardware, but the new 24/192 chip I mentioned is quite excellent. It is used in the Northstar 192 and the new BelCanto DAC3 as well as the Dodson 218. Great sounding upsampler.

Steve N.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Clio09 - if you are talking about the Northstar Transport, the only way you get 24/192 is out the I2S output.

The Northstar DAC has I2S, AES and S/PDIF inputs. The AES and S/PDIF inputs upsample to 24/192. The I2S just passes through.

For the Monarchy DAC I can install a USB or I2S interface, or both. With both, you can drive it from the computer with USB as well as the Northstar Transport with I2S. Contact me with email for more details.

Steve N.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
"Why does North Star allow upsampling at the transport level? Is it indeed the same upsampler as in the DAC."

Identical. The reason is the I2S interface. It is evidently more efficient design-wise to upsample in the Transport and then output 24/192 to the I2S interface. The transport can also output native rate on the S/PDIF outputs.

When you use the Transport and DAc together with S/PDIF, the DAC does the upsampling only if you select this. With the I2S interface the transport always upsamples to 24/96 and the DAC does no upsampling.

Steve N.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
The upsampled data, either using SRC on a computer or 24/192 from the Northstar transport is more dynamic, much smoother on vocals and more detailed than native 44.1.

Steve N.
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