Double upsampling

[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.