Upsampling. Truth vs Marketing

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.

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.

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.

Upsampling may or may not sound better depends on overall design and implementation.

Companies use upsampling because it can allow digital filtering designs that do least amount of harm to music signal.

Don't get hung up on the numbers game, listen to the end result - the music.