Upsampling the way to go? ?


As if we didn't have enough to decide with the format wars, the latest issue of Stereophile implies upsampling is the magic to make cds as good as sacd. ARC however, disagrees. Has anyone actually listened to the ARC CD3 vs the MF NU Vista 3D,Cary, EMC 1,or other comparably priced players with upsampling?
tonyp54
Up and oversampling ala GamuT CD-1 Danish CD Player- better then twice DSD sample rate. $2950, see review in The Absolute Sound. I just got mine, and am loving it!!!!! Huge 3 D sound stage.
With respect that's nothing but a number. I believe the earliest bitstream DACS had a sampling rate of 11.2 Mhz, 10 years ago.

I've also heard it said that soundstage is simply a product of frequency response, re/up/over/whateversamplers thus simply alter the tonal balance to achieve a "better" (according to the tastes of the beholder) sound.
Anyone interested in reading a little more about the process of upsampling, oversampling, interpolation, dither, etc. and how it can benefit(or hurt) the musical signal may find this interesting from the Perpetual Technology folks(see link below--sorry if someone else already referred to this). I found the Level III explanation(see link at the bottom of that page) to be the most interesting and it doesn't take all that much time/effort to read. What I took away was that it seems like it is the companies that go to the trouble of creating proprietary interpolation algorithms to meaningfully increase word length(i.e. not simply just adding dither) in addition to the upsampling that are the ones that are really taking CDs to a higher level with this concept(obviously a lot of non-upsampling players sound fantastic too). In addition to the PT P1A, the Audio Aero Capitole(STARS system) and I assume the dCS Purcell do this to great effect--anyone know what Electrocompaniet does with the EMC1(24/192)? This makes sense to me, but it also again makes the important point that all upsamplers are not created equal--not by a longshot.

http://www.av123.com/pt_interpolate1.html

Tim
This has been interesting reading, but no one has answered the question if they have heard a ARC CD3 compared to one of the upsamplers. To me the truth is still in the listening, not the stats.
Tony

I directly A/B'd my upsampling 24/192 EVS Millenium II to an ARC DAC3 and CD2 and felt that the Millenium showed much more detail, low level resolution and presence.

Haven't heard the CD3, but my results were amazing compared to those two ARC products, which sounded flat compared to the EVS (and I own ARC amp and pre)

Tom