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Upsampling and Stereophile

Last summer there were several threads here on Audiogon about digital upsampling and over sampling (a couple long and heated), but the opinion(s) of the audio press were conspicuously absent. In the Dec. 2000 issue of Stereophile, page 3, John Atkinson, has an editorial explaining their position on this in his "As We See It" column, page 3. I encourage everyone interested in the subject to look up the article. I have excerpted the following quotes that I think sums up Stereophile's opinion, and that may pique your interst: (1) "....the audio industry has settled on an 8X-oversampling ratio, the 44.1 kHZ CD data being converted to a 352.8 kHZ datastream before D/A conversion." (2) "no matter how good these upsampling products can sound-- and the dCS, Bel Canto, and MSB products indeed sound excellent-- there is no conceptual difference between them and traditional CD playback systems. I am now convinced that the sonic differences we have heard and reported on are merely due to the different choices in digital filters made by the designers of these products." (3) "In the meantime don't buy a digital product because it has "24/96" emblazoned on its front panel. Buy it because it makes your CDs sound great". Cheers. Craig.
garfish

Showing 7 responses by garfish

garfish OP
1,840 posts
 
Dan; no need for apology, I think we're all correct here-- just getting the terminology sorted out. Cheers. Craig.
garfish OP
1,840 posts
 
Joe; You're right re: 24/96-- that is just part of the Stereophile quote. I too have a DAC (ML 360S) that is capable of decoding a 24/96 digital stream. But to use the 24/96 capability (in my DAC) the transport would have to output a 24/96 digital stream to the DAC, and I don't know of any 24/96 players that (at least for music only) presently do that? Cheers. Craig.
garfish OP
1,840 posts
 
Dan; cover art on ZZ Top's "Eliminator" Lp is great too. In fact I'm going to frame it-- The whole frontend of an early hotrod fills the cover. Craig.
garfish OP
1,840 posts
 
Carl; I found an excellent LP, ZZ Top "Eliminator" on eBay-- pretty reasonably too. I sure like the cover art on some LPs too. Good Luck. Craig.
garfish OP
1,840 posts
 
Well said Avguy, and Hi Charlie; My purpose(s) in posting this info. from Stereophile is because , as you say, this is complicated technology to us average bears. And for a year or more, Stereophile has been reviewing and promoting upsampling devices as being some kind of fantastic new technology. I think JA's editorial sets the record straight regarding Stereophile's position on up & oversampling technology, ie they are essentially the same thing. I do not mean to imply that the Stereophile guys are incompetent, in fact I respect JA and the rest of the Stereophile reviewers. I've learned much from the magazine, even though I certainly don't always agree with them. Charlie, in another thread you mentioned listening to "Tres Hombres" on 8 trk tapes, quad or something-- were you referring to the "Tres Hombres" that ZZ Top has done? That's grat music BTW. Happy Turkey Day. Craig.
garfish OP
1,840 posts
 
Joe; we're in an area of semantics here, but in the case of my 24/96 DAC, the transport would have to output a 24/96 digital signal, eg SACD players do not even have digital out as I understand it-- to prevent copying in this very high quality digital domain. DVD-A players are just now becoming available, and I don't know if they will have a digital out terminal either? I don't think DVD-V players have 24/96 digital out either-- also to prevent HQ copying. Dan2112, I've not heard the dCS gear but from everything I've read it's absolutely top quality, and that is part of Stereophile's point too. I only posted this thread too help clear up the confusion between the terms upsampling and oversampling. I became very interested in this before purchasing a Levinson 360S DAC, ie before spending a LOT of money. Cheers, Craig.
garfish OP
1,840 posts
 
Sol322; Thanks for the references re: DVD players that output a 24/96 digital signal. I'll check them out. Craig.
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