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Upsampling. Truth vs Marketing

Has anyone done a blind AB test of the up sampling capabilities of a player? If so what was the result?

The reason why I ask because all the players and converters that do support up sampling are going to 192 from 44.1. And that is just plane wrong.

This would add huge amount of interpolation errors to the conversion. And should sound like crap, compared.
I understand why MFG don't go the logical 176.4khz, because once again they would have to write more software.

All and all I would like to hear from users who think their player sounds better playing Redbook (44.1) up sampled to 192. I have never come across a sample rate converter chip that does this well sonically and if one exist, then it is truly a silver bullet, then again....44.1 should only be up sample to 88.2 or 176.4 unless you can first go to many GHz and then down sample it 192, even then you will have interpolation errors.
izsakmixer
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Non-integer sampling frequency conversion is no big deal. The worst case error is a fraction of the error which would have existed if the interpolated data had not been calculated and output at the higher rate.
trelja
3,223 posts
 
This is the one and only experience I have had in listening to a player where you could choose to upsample or not, so take it with a grain of salt...

After we went to a Friday Night Cruise Night in Sommerville, NJ in Bill LeGall's Packard this past autumn, we sat down and listened to his Music Hall Maverick. I asked him if he preferred the upsampling or not, and he told me he didn't know, as he never tried it. So, he asked if we could do some A/B testing, and keep our opinions to ourselves until it was over. Then, we'd see where we both stood. We listened to a few cuts, with and without the upsampling. The other components in the system were his incredibly modded Infinity IRS V speakers (with internal 1500 watt amps for the bass modules), Mesa Baron running 6L6 tubes 2/3 triode - 1/3 pentode power, Audio Research preamp, and his own cabling.

Without the upsampling, the music was clearly more dynamic, open, upfront, and to both of our ears, much more honest. Upsampling REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY smoothed out the sound, and gave an extreme LP kind of feel to the music. I don't want to say that detail dropped down, but because of such a loss of jump factor in the music, it gave it that kind of vibe. The differences were night and day. We both preferred no upsampling by a mile, but I could clearly see where a lot of audiophiles would feel the opposite, and in many a system, it would probably be a better way to go.

I will say that after this experiment, the Zanden ads that tout its great sound, partly they feel due to the fact that it does not upsample made a lot of sense to me.
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Treja, I would have loved to have been there. I have only compared the non-upsampling Audio Note to other upsampling rigs. My preference has always laid with the Audio Note. There is an unfettered feel about the honest read.
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