Oversampling rate in J River

Dmm53,

To better analyze your results, could you tell me what output method you're using in Media Center? As a rule of thumb, the DSPs in Media center should only be used if you've got a less-than-ideal situation, such as a home theater. A lot of the options are there to accommodate SW cut-offs, or legacy receivers that aren't capable of decoding higher resolutions. You're W4S DAC is capable of playing native 24/192 files, so you shouldn't need any of the DSPs. Also ensure that your Windows sound device settings are correct. Make sure Media Center can take exclusive control of the output device, etc.

To more directly address the question, you theoretically shouldn't be hearing a difference when using up-sampling or oversampling. For example: If you're playing a Redbook CD rip (16/44,1) and up-sampling it to 24/192, you're only padding the output with additional 0's. No information is added, but the sample size is just much larger. Depending on the output method, you may be experiencing some other interactions with the Windows kmixer that are doing more harm than good.

This is upsampling. Often the D/A chip behaves better with higher sample-rates, particularly when the digital filtering is not adjustable. Digital filtering is one of the things that causes digital audio to be fatigueing, along with jitter. Unfortunately, upsamplers are usually not as good as the real hi-res files, particularly hardware upsamplers like this one.

BTW, There are other ways to make your W4S sound a LOT better without upsampling.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Steve,

"There are other ways to make your W4S sound a LOT better without upsampling."

Pray, tell . . .

Thanks,
--Neil

Ekwisnek:

I used the settings published by W4S for the DAC for J River. I am using Media center 16 and had it set on no oversampling. I am using Kernel Streaming, as recommended by W4S. I had no other DSP settings in use.

of course, I have the W4S driver selected in the setup which I thought bypassed all the sound drivers in Windows Vista. Have I missed something?

Audioengr:

If there are ways with my current setup to improve the sound, I am all ears and would be very appreciative. If it requires me buying an Off Ramp,then not so much.

Luckily Steve is always forthcoming about being in the business, and of course he'll tell you that his product will help; how else would he stay in busniess?

I read through W4S's J River setup guide and they hit all the important spots. Your setup is solid, and I'm sure you'll get plenty of enjoyment from the DAC as-is. More to Steve's point: sometimes the "all-in-one" solution isn't the best. For PC audio this becomes especially true, given everything that happens from the moment you press Play on the file, to the moment it reaches the analog outputs of your DAC. I cuurently use a modified M2Tech Hiface that runs "off-grid" on battery power. You would not believe the improvements this made in my system. To each their own, and I'm never one to push people to buy more gear; I'm just telling you my findings.

Just remember: You can NEVER recreate the music that has been destroyed during the recording, downconversion, or complression process. You may hear a "difference" when upsampling, but you're not really improving the source material.

Since your hapiness is really all that should be important, I say upsample away, you're not hurting anything.