Another DAC question

[Richard Kimber]

How does one tell if a DAC does upsampling? If my memory is right the MF DAC upsamples to 192 and has a blue light to indicate that it is doing that, but it's not clear to me what the Audiolab MDAC does, and some DACs are specifically advertised as not upsampling. So to a (relative) novice like me it's somewhat confusing. Is there any guidance anywhere that indicates how you tell what does what? Is the absence of a statement in the specifications that there is upsampling being done evidence that there is none?

- Richard.

 

[Purité Audio]

A lot of dacs upsample internally, so 'kinder' filters can be used, but the actual output is in the native sample rate of the file, ie 44.1 played at 44.1.
I believe most modern dac chips can be configure to upsample in this way, 'Upsampling' a file to increase its size adds no sonic benefit.
Which dac/s are you interested in?
Keith.

 

[DevillEars]

Hi RK,

Not really - it varies from DAC to DAC. Some provide an LED on the front panel which illuminates when upsampling is in action, some also have a mechanism to indicate the sample rate (e.g. a "ladder" of LEDs), but most don't.

On those that have no sample-rate indication, you just have to take it on trust that the device behaves in the way indicated in any accompanying documentation.

In the interests of "minimalism" some view these Christmas tree decorations as anathema.

 

[ChrisPa]

Effectively the ESS sabre chip used in the mdac upsamples to a very high frequency - according to JohnW 84MHz (don't know if that's the clock or sample frequency, but either way it's extremely high)
http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showpost.php?p=1810515&postcount=413

And therefore the advantage is that all the filtering can be done digitally

It's effectively a DSP chip rather than simply a DAC