Upsampling, Can there be too much?


I've owned the Chord Mscaler for a year and loved it, but recently added two new components that have built in upsampling: The Aurender W20SE, and the Jay's Audio CDT3-MK3. I find the Mscaler works well with the Aurender's built in upsampling, but not the Jay's.

 

Conclusion: not upsampling the Jay's, and standard redbook 16-bit 44Khz to the Mscaler gives incredible 24-bit 705Khz to the Hugo TT2 DAC for finest sound.

 

With multiple upsamplers in a chain has anyone gotten static, popping, smearing, or any kind of distortion from too much upsampling?

128x128brandonhifi

Chains of digital devices, each with their own clock/jitter signatures are a bad idea, as each has to attempt to de-jitter and lock the clock according to its own peculiarities. IMHO, those who keep chasing a new upsampler are chasing different, but not necessarily better, jitter signatures.

A rational observation.

Charles

 

Upsampling adds nothing but distortions. Some people enjoys added distortions! IME, once you hear a DAC with a high precision master clock, you would not feel the need for gimmicks like upsampling.

Perhaps, a blanket statement regarding up sampling is overly general.  Octave records has recently started mastering in DSD256, but prior to this they mastered in DSD64.  So, they have been upsampling the 64 to 256 and so far the reviews, to my surprise, are uniformly positive. 

@vonhelmholtz 

I hope you’re certainly not suggesting that results from consumer grade up-sampler is on par with mastering done in a professional studio?