Upsampling and the DirectStream...thought’s, experiences?

Audio Components DACs
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Next (final?) major change to the digital will be a new streaming front end into my Directstream.

Keeping an eye open on Octave as a probable option, and happy to wait as my i2s modded Oppo 203 sounds terrific, and I prefer it to the onboard Bridge 2.
The Oppo has its limits though, no DSD from Roon, no MQA and no hires above 24/192.

So a change of streamer should take care of these limitations, have a lot of native DSD which I’m not getting the benefit of atm.

Anyway…
The DCS Network Bridge has caught my eye, anything I’ve read about it says it’s pretty special sounding AND it’s a Roon endpoint that does all the numbers I’m looking for.

As a “network bridge” though, it’s bigger brother the new Vivaldi Upsampler is supposed to sound terrifically better, so might actually do some hard saving for that instead.
It Upsamples all the digital before it hits the dac, and given how Ted’s Directstream does all its digital upsampling onboard, I wonder if the Vivaldi Upsampler would realistically be a good option with it?
I know the UK Dac company Chord with its “Dave” dac has a massive uplift when used with their own upsampling kit?
Seems to me that’s analogous in software to the benefits the HQPlayer guys get?

I used to Upsample everything in software before it hit my older Dacs, using SOX back in the Squeezebox days, and others with JRiver etc, but the Directstream is a very different Dac,
Concluded back then that native rate with no upsampling worked better for me.

But a lot of DS users still swear by HQPlayer (especially with Roon?) and I’m talking about DCS upsampling, which will be a bit more special.

Thoughts experiences appreciated chaps, the Network Bridge is a good base option, but would upsampling before the DirectStream the DCS way be a bigger leap forward, given the DS’s unique architecture?

Thanks much. :slight_smile:

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And if I use the dCS network Bridge with Directstream, would the DS’s clock be slaved to the external Network Bridge’s, as someone elsewhere suggested?

Just looking to improve my Roon streamer to Directstream, but don’t want to mess up the DS’s way of doing things.

Maybe one for Ted if he would be kind enough to comment, thanks.

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The DS never slaves it’s clock (in the sense that you are talking about.) It has a big buffer and it keeps the buffer from overflowing or underflowing by very slowly changing it’s clock frequency. If an external source has a very stable clock the DS may only need to adjust the clock frequency once every, say, 500 seconds instead of once every 50 seconds - no practical difference. The bigger differences in sound quality come from the level of noise is on the incoming signal, ground (and power for USB): better sources generate less noise.

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The bigger differences in sound quality come from the level of noise is on the incoming signal, ground (and power for USB): better sources generate less noise.

Thanks Ted, that makes a lot of sense, and is where I am coming from upgrading the source going forward.
Regarding the upsampling prior to the DS, in another corner of the Interweb, a dCS Rep explained why in my situation the Upsampler wouldn’t be a viable use-case.
The Bridge however (being a very good source) would be, even if I’d not be using its full capabilities on a non dCS dac.
To go down that road is WAY outside my pay-grade so can live with that!

No i2S unfortunately, 24/192 and DSDx64 only via AES, but that level is more than good enough for these older ears. :slight_smile:
I know you’ve said the DS is pretty “input agnostic”, so I can rest easy with that.

Thank you Ted for your input here.