non over sampling DAC better than 24/96 or192 DAC?

I think it also depends on what you'll be listening to. I had the opportunity compare the Lite Dac-AH to their own solid-state oversampling Dac (the Dac-38). The conclusion I came to is that the Dac-Ah did some things better (I don't think I've ever heard a Dac that does acoustic guitar and percussion quite as well as the Dac-Ah; it's very "holographic" when it's on) and the Dac-38 did some things better (vocals were more "liquid", it's significantly more forgiving of poorly recorded material, 2-channel DVD-Audio stuff was unbelievable).

Now, that's purely anecdotal; like everything in high-end audio, I'm sure both designs can sound great if implemented well, and like Gmood said, it probably depends on your system's strenghts and weaknesses as well.

It is in my opinion a matter of taste. NOS DACs sound natural and fluid with very good ambience retrieval and microdynamics. They have smaller soundstage though. Up- and oversampling DACs sound bold, powerful in the bass and have wide soundstage. They have generally better macrodynamics in comparison to the NOS DACs.

Chris

it is hard to generalize since the sound of a cd player is the sum of all its parts.

my experience both in my own system and ces, is that too much over sampling and upsampling is not pleasant to the ears.

persoannly i prefer 18 or 20 bit players.

I totally agree with AER. Nice synopsis!