DACS With Up Sampler

Okay, I am chopping at the bit to see if my theoretical as described in my previous BLOG http://victrolax.blogspot.com/2006/06/whats-with-oversampling-upsampling-and.html was correct. The premise was that up sampling will exacerbate and not fix shortcomings in DAC sound. So here is my revised ranking (hypothetical) going from no-so-hot to hot sounding (this ranking assumes that the signal is up sampled to 96 kHz and is based on my listening bias):

1. DAC AH Modified
2. DAC AM
3. DAC 60
4. DIYEDEN Great March Modified
5. DAC 38
6. DAC 68
7. DAC 60 Modified




Music

I had to pick music that I thought was revealing. Here is what I listened to:

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
The Jones Street Boys
Eileen Farrell, Torch Songs
Chicago, Theme from the Movie
Harry Connick – When Harry Met Sally
Rickie Lee Jones – Traffic from Paradise

Equipment:

XianSheng D-2020A KT88
The smoothest integrated around. The D-2020A neutral midrange and neutral high end – Poseidon adventure shattering bass for a 30 watt tube amp make it a perfect amp for evaluation.. Its the 5Z3Ps that I am addicted to.

Speakers:

Infinity 360s
Acoustat Spectra 11
Aurm Cantus Leisure
Proac 1sc
Headphones: Grado SR 225 with Ming Da MC 66AE headphone amplifier

Categories:

I broke my listening biases into categories an assigned points. Here they are:

Smooth High End
A DAC scored above 15 if the high end was smooth and rolled off. Constrictions and beaming scored points less than 15.

Mid Range Smoothness
Lucid and smooth scored over 15 points. A sucked out midrange scored between 10 and 15 points. Nasal sounding midrange scored less than 10 points.

Deep tight Low End
A deep tight low end scored more than 15 points. A rolled off low end scored between 15 and 10 points, a flabby low end scored less than 10 points.

Annoying Mid bass
Over 15 points meant that the mid bass was relatively neutral. Less than 15 points was a slightly bloated mid bass.

Resolution – distance between instruments
A DAC scored over 10 points if the background vocalists were clearly distinguishable from the lead and had placement. Over 15 points if the background vocalists were then distinguishable among themselves, Less than 10 points if I could not tell who was who

Dynamics
A DAC scored over 15 points if the movement from quite to loud shocked me. A DAC scored between 10 and 15 points if I noticed a difference. A DAC scored less than 10 points if I felt like I was listening to a CD through a pancake.

Articulation
If I clearly hear the plucking of guitar strings, I gave the DAC over 15 points. If the guitar strings were just Ok and had no sense of depth or presence, It scored between 10 and 15. If it sounded like nails on a chalk board, I gave it less than 10.

Now that I have my music, equipment and criteria, here we go.

The “Bunch”

First, let me give you a reference. We took a “bunch” of CD players readily available on the market and put them through our tests. The CD Players ranged from $300 - $1000. We then averaged the scores. Here is how they played out.

The “Bunch” Scores:


Smooth High End 10
Mid Range Smoothness 9
Deep Tight Low End 15
Annoying Mid Bass 17
Resolution 9
Dynamics 10
Articulation 10
Total 80


The “Bunch” scored a value of 80 , which we will now have to try to beat either through stand alone DAC or up sampling.

The DAC AH Modded

I was not sure what to expect when the up sampler was used with a NOS DAC. My first thought was the upper midrange and high end would become glossy and have a metallic sheen to the sound. In other words, it would exacerbate the DAC AH’s weaknesses.

The compete opposite happened.

I chose the 96kHz up sample with the DAC AH.. What a difference! Gone was the aggressive constrictive high end. The upper midrange just sang. And here is the best part: the dynamics of the NOS method were kept in tact. This is definite winning combination that places the DAC AH / Up sampler combination above the pack.

The DAC AH Modified without the Up sampler


Smooth High End 10
Mid Range Smoothness 12
Deep Tight Low End 17
Annoying Mid Bass 17
Resolution 12
Dynamics 19
Articulation 17
Total 104

The DAC AH Modified with Up sampler

Smooth High End 18
Mid Range Smoothness 18
Deep Tight Low End 18
Annoying Mid Bass 17
Resolution 14
Dynamics 19
Articulation 14
Total 118

The Lite DAC AM

And now I turned my attention to the DAC AM, the DAC I like best in the less than $400 dollar range. As a matter of fact, I like it better than the stock DAC 60 and I highly recommend it if your system can reveal inner details of the midrange. It’s a killer combination with the XianSheng D-2020

To my surprise, the up sampler just ruined this DAC and turned it into a syrupy mess.

The DAC AM Modified without the Up sampler

Smooth High End 18
Mid Range Smoothness 18
Deep Tight Low End 14
Annoying Mid Bass 18
Resolution 18
Dynamics 14
Articulation 18
Total 118


The DAC AM Modified with Up sampler


Smooth High End 18
Mid Range Smoothness 18
Deep Tight Low End 10
Annoying Mid Bass 18
Resolution 15
Dynamics 10
Articulation 16
Total 105


In my next installment, I will visit the DAC 60 Modified, the DAC 68, the Great March Modified and the DAC 38.