Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[trcns]

In the past I asked this question and from the answers I learned that converting any music from 16/44.1 to higher resolution is just adding bunch of zeros in front. But now I started seeing so many DAC’s up-sampling the music to 24/192 or 24/384, which bring up the question again “Is it really add zero in front of 16/44 or did they figure out how to create a broader spectrum in frequency from 44 khz to 384 khz and how many listeners heard the difference in quality of sound by up converting it? “We are not discussing the HD-Track’s music.”
I read the reviews and saw the picture open DACs. I don’t see much in them other than a high rez sound card. Please correct me if I am wrong.
And finally, In JRiver 20 we have an option to up sample the music. Questions are
1)   Does up converting makes a difference?
2)   What is the difference between $500 or $5000 DAC re-sampling the music verses JRiver re-sampling?
3)   Can JRiver do the same job in re-sampling the music as a DAC does?

[Ninouchka]

No. When I master a production at 96 kHz 7.1, I create also stereo versions 96 and 44.1 or 48 depending if its for DVD, CD or BLURAY.
Upconverting doesnt make my music better. You need to use the same frequency, bits as I used for mixing and mastering the end product. I can remix/remaster the product, if I have the original reels or data. The end user never can do this.
JRiver does the same job as an expensive DAC, regarding resampling.
an expensive DAC has mostly better hardware, is faster, has more options, more in/outs, better clocks.
Some new consumer DACs offer the upsampling option, but this is just to ask more money for nothing.
If you hear a difference they do more then upsampling and are messing around with eq or dynamics, which I do not like.
But if you want, JRiver MC has a great DSP, and you can change the music as you like. A good recording/mastering studio"s end
product doesnt need change, if your audio equipment and speakers are properly calibrated.

[6233638]

In the past I asked this question and from the answers I learned that converting any music from 16/44.1 to higher resolution is just adding bunch of zeros in front.

Increasing the bit-depth does this, not the sample rate.
However it is useful to increase the bit-depth this way since it is never harmful (after all, you just added zeros) and if you are processing the audio in any way - even just reducing the volume - it will sound better at a higher bit-depth.
 
A 16-bit track with a 6dB (1-bit) reduction in volume now requires a 17-bit output to avoid a loss of quality - though we don't have a "17-bit" format so we jump from 16-bit to 24-bit.


Resampling is a bit of a gray area. The short answer is that it might depending on your DAC.
If the player does a better job upsampling than the DAC, it might sound a bit better. This is why a lot of people like upsampling CD-quality tracks to DSD.
With my DAC, I feel that it sounds better to send it the native sample rate than have Media Center upsample it.
 
I'd say that it's more likely that you would want the player to upsample if you have a cheaper DAC that might not do as good a job with lower sample-rate PCM; especially if the DAC supports DSD inputs.
While people report quite a lot of difference between different PCM DACs, most people say that DSD sounds very similar on most DACs - which I would say sounds better than a bad PCM DAC, but that the best PCM DACs sound better than the best DSD.