You got to be ?& · Kidding me

Maybe 20 years ago a Philips TDA 1541 chip set was something. I remember installing sockets in my CD player, so I could easily change chip sets because Philips was always coming out with another 1541 that was a little better than the previous, like the TDA 1541A-S2 Crown chip set. The truth is I had two Tandberg CD players, one was 14 bit the later model was 16 bit, other than that they were identical. I compared those players over and over again and there was vertually no difference in the sound.

I could tell you were new around here. Zanden has been using this approach for a few years with success. They were hot for a bit, but now it seems demand/sales have slowed down.

The error in your judgement is the idea that "latest" = "greatest".

Unfortunately, this is an all too common mistake in todays mentality, which has been so overwhelmingly infected with the 'consumerism' is good idea / the buy, buy, buy compulsive behavior that is continuously shoved down the American throat by our oligarically controlled government and culture...

But, don't get me wrong. I'm not, at all, implying that there isn't some "great" new stuff out there. You just need to evaluate it for yourself rather than make assumptions.

Now, the original digital chips were simply too new & not finished when placed on the market, the data output was incomplete (14bits) or corrupted by mishandled computations. While, the newer digital audio chips, much like the digital video thing, makes alterations to the original data to "enhance" it, but there again the original data is not preserved -- so again, we are back to edginess, shrillness, lack of overtone or deterioration of overtone, and so on, yet the sound is smoother than the original chips. But, in the midst of all this are the few that do actually sound good, that seem to "try" to preserve the original data (they only "try", because, after all, we are talking about digital data conversion to analogue signal) - and remember, also, that the outputted signal is only as good as the quality of the current too, so now we need to discuss how the current is manipulated (tubes, caps, MOSFETs, and on and on). Certainly, each step of manipulation, alteration, rebuilding, and so forth that goes on opens opportunity (and multiplication of that opportunity) for corruption of the original signal.

So, on that note -- an Audio Note DAC (which uses no upsampling, oversampling, nor whateversampling) occupies my digital source shelf because it simply sounds MUCH more natural than anything else I have compared it too.

Cheers

Bravo Grateful! I agree with you on all accounts (very nicely put), but it seems to me that you haven't auditioned all "whateversampling" solutions. Yes, it is extremely difficult to obtain good sound from upsampling designs, but once you hear it done the right way, there is no going back. It is simply because there is no "analog reconstruction" circuit available to cover for the NonOS stair-step at high frequencies resulting in smeared top-end image, IMHO!

Best wishes,
Alex Peychev

sorry , but some people actually like the sound of the original sony play station also. and rolled off warm sounding cables, and warm and rolled off speakers, and warm and rolled off electronics. for those people, great, what you do in the privacy of your own home is your own business , but state of the art its not, nor is it what hi end is suppose to be about, and thats getting out of the way, and letting the recording come through with the least amount of editorializing as possible.