Upsampling? chord and auralic new devices

Network Audio
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I watched a couple videos on new products from Chord and Auralic that are dedicated upsamplers. Is this something one would consider if you have a DSD or SGCD? Also I know Audirvana allows for upsampling as well for those running it. Has anyone tried either of the new products or used any upsampling software and what were your thoughts? And if you have used it, what settings did you use and for what incoming bit/sample rates?
Thanks in advance to anyone who answers.

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This is addressed somewhere on a DSD thread. It isn’t of benefit as the DSD up samples internally to higher rate DSD stream.

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I use an auralic Aries G2 with a dsd. It works pretty good and I thought it was a big upgrade over the bridge II. Even though it can upsample, I don’t utilize that feature.

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For my headphone setup I run Audirvana upsampling everything to DSD128 - I find this makes PCM recordings sound smoother - computer is M1 MacBook Air connected to A&K KANN Alpha which I use as headphone amp and USB DAC.

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Check out the Hans Beekhuyzen you tube channel, he tested the AURALIC upsampler on different DAC’s.

On his Mytec Brooklyn the improvement level was so low that he seriously questioned the investment.

With the EUR 7000 Denafrips it opened up the sound stage and it made sense to him.

Lesson learned, it won’t turn a EUR 2000 DAC into a EUR 7000 DAC, if you are considering this go all in.

Auralic digital source stack:

  1. Streamer / server
  2. Streaming DAC
  3. Upsampler with digital volume control
  4. External clock

A “separates” heaven!

All EUR 6000 to 7000 a piece.

Don’t forget the budget for:

  • high end power cables: 4 PCs
  • a high end power distribution block, or maybe better, separate electrical circuits to the mains distribution board/panel
  • 7 pc’s of high end HDMI cables

At the end of the day, the music does not become any better than how it is recorded and mastered. Never forget that.

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Upsampling as a form of signal processing to improve sound quality has been around for decades. It seems that it can be effective if done as part of a overall system, such as in an Auralic, dCS or Chord stack, or as done in a multitude of processors including the DSD DAC.

I don’t see the point of it in something like Roon, as all it seems to do is add heat and electrical noise. According to the Chief Engineer of Devialet, the less conversions the better.

I suppose you could compare it to analogue systems that have too many gain stages.

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