Double upsampling

[Masterstroke]

I’m going to be soon installing a Meridian Explorer2 USB DAC, and am a bit concerned over the impact of A+ upsampling on the Meridian which itself upsamples to 24/192. Should I set the A+ (3.0.6) forced upsampling to “none” (currently on 24/96) to avoid doubling up? Seems to me that processing the music twice in this way would be a bad thing. Any views on this please?

[jhwalker]

45 minutes ago, Masterstroke said:

I’m going to be soon installing a Meridian Explorer2 USB DAC, and am a bit concerned over the impact of A+ upsampling on the Meridian which itself upsamples to 24/192. Should I set the A+ (3.0.6) forced upsampling to “none” (currently on 24/96) to avoid doubling up? Seems to me that processing the music twice in this way would be a bad thing. Any views on this please?

 

Most who choose to upsample do it to the maximum rate their DAC will accept; e.g., 24/192 for your Meridian.

[Masterstroke]

So I set the A+ upsampling to 24/192 and the Meridian then auto upsamples it for a second time?

Doesn't seem right to me. Or have I completely misunderstood the interaction between player & DAC?

[Jud]

6 minutes ago, Masterstroke said:

So I set the A+ upsampling to 24/192 and the Meridian then auto upsamples it for a second time?

Doesn't seem right to me. Or have I completely misunderstood the interaction between player & DAC?

 

No.  Anything at lower rates is upsampled.  If the DAC accepts 24/192 it (or 24/176.4) bypasses the internal PCM upsampling.  I'm guessing the DAC then uses sigma-delta modulation to megahertz rates before final conversion to analog.

[Masterstroke]

Thanks Jud. So really it doesn't matter how low I set the A+ sample rate it will get the 24/192 treatment when it reaches the DAC. I guess the same applies if my music is of higher (than 24/192) sample rates, it will get downsampled to the Explorers maximum. My concern was that too much processing might cause SQ problems.

[Jud]

7 minutes ago, Masterstroke said:

Thanks Jud. So really it doesn't matter how low I set the A+ sample rate it will get the 24/192 treatment when it reaches the DAC. I guess the same applies if my music is of higher (than 24/192) sample rates, it will get downsampled to the Explorers maximum. My concern was that too much processing might cause SQ problems.

 

You can think of the situation with lower resolution files/rips as having your choice of A+ upsampling or the DAC's internal upsampling, whichever you prefer.

[Masterstroke]

Good to know.Cheers.

[One and a half]

After many, many months of trying various upsampling systems, Audirvana +, HQPlayer to DSD128/256, i gave up the quest as a fruitless exercise. The sound was ok, but never quite satisfied, 'natural' sampling was more engaging, sounded less thinner and overall easier to listen to. PCM upsampling didn't fare much better really since the DAC internally upsamples to DSD anyway.

 

Now, very reluctantly, mainly due to the attitude of the owner, I use Jriver again as library management is very important equaling SQ. I don't like to spend time repairing A+'s current quirks with file management, and HQPlayer's non existence. OK, I can wait for the 500ms for the DAC to change the sample rate and lock onto the new and hear a relay click. As for the sound out of Jriver, it gets the job done.

 

Far more important is the DAC's ability to playback Redbook, if this quality is good, then any other different sample rate file generally follows the same pattern.