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In Reply to: Let's see if we can have a civilised discussion on this one . . . posted by Ryelands on February 26, 2016 at 10:14:43:
There are (at least) two separate issues here. First is the particular choice of upsampling filters, specifically the complete set of filters in the chain, starting with the input Redbook and ending with the analog output of the DAC. (This would be a digital filter in the DAC followed byp an analog filter in the DAC vs. a digital filter in the computer, followed by a digital filter in the DAC running at a higher sample rate, followed by an analog filter in the DAC.) Different filters will produce different waveforms when fed with the same original input. These can and do sound different, but which are "better", "more accurate", "higher resolution" etc. will depend on lots of other factors starting with the recording and ending with the listener. (Note: Even a NOS DAC provides some amount of both analog and digital filtering, namely a zero order hold (stair step) filter provided by the output register followed by some kind of analog low-pass filtering of the output, either deliberate or due to natural circuit limitations.)
Second, is the question of where or when the upsampling gets performed and what the effect of the related processing is on critical analog circuitry, including clocks, power supply, the actual DAC switching circuitry, the DAC I/V circuitry and output buffer and (possibly) downstream preamplifier and amplifiers. If the identical computer processing is used in real-time then any noise associated with this processing may affect the critical analog components. (This is the same issue as playing WAV files vs. playing FLAC files where the decoding is done in real time.) There may be some potential benefits from doing the conversion in real-time as well, since this requires reading smaller files in real-time compared to upsampled data. This will raise additional issues such as the type of storage devices on the computer and other portions of operating system code besides device drivers.
There are endless opportunities to play with this stuff at little or no cost to one's wallet, but after doing so for several hundred hours, I eventually realized this wasn't really as much fun as just listening to music. :-)
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
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Follow Ups
- RE: Let's see if we can have a civilised discussion on this one . . . - Tony Lauck 02/26/1611:43:23 02/26/16 (1)
- RE: Let's see if we can have a civilised discussion on this one . . . - Bob_C 14:29:09 02/27/16 (0)
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