Upsampling PCM or DSD in 2022


The purpose of this post is to ask the collective about the best options for upsampling today, and whether it’s worth doing. I stumbled into this topic after recently considering Paul McGowan’s take on DSD, and after reflecting on the upsampling in my home theater system.

Paul believes that DSD is world’s better than PCM. That caught my attention, because, until now, I have been operating under John Darko’s view that high res (i.e. 24-bit and above) is nice but not worth chasing--CD quality is good enough. But audio does seem analogous video. And 1080p isn't good enough for my video streams. So, I now want to give DSD and upsampling a shot.

In my home theater system, I use an Nvidia Shield TV streamer for its AI upsampling, driven by its graphics processor. Plenty of video content is still being released or only available at 1080p. Although upsampled 1080p isn’t as good as 4k, it’s better than basic 1080p. That upsampling makes a big difference for me. I strongly dislike watching 1080p content on my 4k TV. As far as I’m aware, the Nvidia Shield streamer offers the best video upsampling on the market, and it only costs >$200. It occurred to me that I might get similar gratification by upsampling audio too.

Upsampling can be performed at the DAC, streamer, server, or somewhere in between. Here are the major options I’ve considered so far:

  1. PS Audio’s Direct Stream DAC costs 6k. As an FPGA unit, it has lots of extra power that this manufacturer directs towards upsampling, and upsampling PCM to DSD is a major selling point for this device. Unfortunately, you have to get to the Direct Stream in the lineup to experience that feature.
  2. Chord’s Hugo M Scaler costs 5k. Although Chord builds FPGA DACs too, Chord sells a separate component for upscaling. In the audio chain, the M Scaler sits between a streamer and DAC. Because Chord separates out upsampling functionality into its own component, Chord’s solution is likely more expensive than PS Audio’s.
  3. HQ Player software costs >$300. HQ Player is a software service that can be installed on a server, or on a computer that sits between the server and streamer. Besides being affordable, you can pair HQ Player with Roon. The author of AudioBacon reports HQ Player introducing up to 30 seconds of lag to an audio stream when set to the most demanding upsampling algorithm even when used with a powerful Windows computer. But another commenter mentioned that his M1 Apple device introduced zero lag when running HQ Player.

Because the retail price of the components in my stereo system came out to about 5k (when new), HQ Player is where I’m looking for now. Please comment if:

  • You know about some other upsampling options I ought to consider;
  • You have opinions about the value of high res audio or upsampling; or
  • If you have anything you’d like to add to the conversation.
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I went with the PS Audio Direct Stream, moving to it for the upsampling and FPGA. As a techie, I liked the idea of FPGA and to me upsampling makes sense. I looked at the Chord, but yeah, way more money and extra cables.

I don't have any experience with HQ player, but based on your $5K system (nothing to sneeze at, it took me 20+ years to get to that level!) a $6K DAC is hard to justify. However, personally I stayed away from the PC and software route. True, plenty of people love that type of system, but to me it introduces too many variables and places to inject noise.

Last CD vs. Hi-Res? Depends on the level of your system I was fine with MP3's in the 90's (GASP!!)....but now have only CD level and slowly moving my favorite stuff to Hi-Res. 

Hope this helps a bit.

Roon has built-in upsampling, so that’s one option. Here’s what I think:

About 15-20 years ago there was a revolution in how well your average DAC chip handled 44.1kHz/16 bit audio, and it’s now very very good.  The big delta between high resolution music and CD's has all but vanished.

While it is impossible to add new data to audio signals for now, barring some future AI process, higher sample rates do behave differently in the very top octave.

I don’t like DSD for the most part. I find it bright and hard.

 

I have used HQPlayer for about 2 years.  I really like it.  I upsample to 192K PCM and use the DSP FIR section (REW and rePhase - kindof a noob at that).  Anyway, if you are planning to upsample to DSD, you will need some power, depending on how high up the DSD ladder you go.  At least 4 core I5 for a CPU, I suspect, and a good chance of a $1500 or more video card.  HQPlayer can use the GPU for various functions.  I suggest you research the requirements for a computer/device to run HQPlayer and the desired DSD rate before you buy.

I was researching building a better PC than I have now just for HQPlayer and it fairly quickly hit $3-$5K fast, and that was not a high powered machine.  That's when I decided I was going to stick with PCM and re-aligned my purchases accordingly.

@erik_squires I looked into upsampling with Roon. When I use the computer as Roon Core only (and send the stream to the HiFi), I don't see the ability to upsample. I do see the ability to upsample when the computer is also acting as the streamer. I've searched the Roon forums, and that's all I've seen. If you know of a setting I've missed, please share. 

@jgoldrick I am interested to try upsampling PCM to DSD. Looks like a bit of a learning curve to use HQP generally, but I'm hoping that once the settings are all dialed in that I won't have to fiddle with the software much after that. We'll see how it goes. 

It's funny to me that USB cables become relevant again to attain DSD. As my system is graduating from entry level gear, this next tiers of DACs mostly have DSD decoding abilities. 

 

DirectStream is the only way to go. I guess you missed the 20% off plus big trade INS a few years back. I traded in a buncha junk and got it new for about $3.3K.

Stay far away from PCs.