Thoughts on up-sampling
 

Thought I would run this past everyone before I try it. I seem to prefer the smoother nature of up-sampling thru my player and Lumin. Would it be best to up-sample with the lumin (K01x up-sampling off), or use it set to native and up-sample with the K01x DAC?

I've always believed upsampling should be done closest to the dac. However, I own a k01x and feel that no upsampling, or maybe only 2x, sounds best.

You should just try both and trust your ears [emoji106]

I have a K-03X and listen to mostly classical music, some Jazz. I've read what others (including reviewers) like and have experimented quite a bit. I generally like 4Fs upconversion with the SDLY1 filter. DSD filter off for SACD playback.

So far I tend to agree with both of you. A small dose (2x or 4x) of up-sampling and use of a filter depending on the material.

DCS Rossini. Depends on the recording. For good ones I don’t like the upsampling. But I like the option since it seems to take the edge off more super compressed rock / pop.

With my Vivaldi I usually go with either DSD or DXD. I have left it on DSD for the last few months.

I have an Ayon CD5S with quad R2R PCM1704K chips. The DAC has the ability to run native 16/44.1 from the CD transport and play up to 24/192 on the SPDIF inputs. It can also upsample the 16/44.1 to 24/192

I also managed to snag some Linn files a while ago and they were able to produce the same track/albums in 16/44.1, 24/96 and 24/192

I found that upsampling the 16/44.1 did indeed produce a sound not dissimilar to the 24/96/192 versions, in particular a smoothness to the sound. But that may or may not be too everyone's liking. In some cases, I prefer the edginess of the original 16/44.1 but that may be a filtering artefact.

What I’ve found is that any difference in audio quality with upsampling+interpolation is due to the digital filters employed in the D/A converter.

I think we are now listening to differences in digital filters more than any other differences in our digital playback systems.

Your thoughts have crossed my mind too. A friend of mine always listens to native format and insists it sounds more detailed. If you look at the math up-sampling should increase detail (resolution) by plotting extra data between native sample points. Indeed we may be hearing artifacts from digital filtering or/and the process of up-sampling may be doing things Science does not fully understand yet.

On my DCS Rossini I prefer DSD upsampling although the DXD setting does sound better on certain recordings...just depends. I leave it on DSD the majority of the time.

- Buck