[wes008]

I recently bought an HRT Microstreamer, as the Magni/Modi didn't play to well with low-impedance headphones (From a volume standpoint. They sounded fantastic). I'd heard fantastic things about the Microstreamer from Steve Guttenberg, Mike Mercer, and other Head-Fi'ers, but when I got it, I was a little disappointed. It sounded really good; it wasn't too colored, it had a smooth musicality to it, and vocals, both male and female, were freakin' amazing. However, three things bothered me: The bass seemed a little fuzzy, the soundstage seemed narrow, and banjos and ukuleles seemed to fall into this kinda hole. I'd given it a few days time, and earlier today I had made up my mind that I was going to return it when I get back from my trip. I was running the DAC at 16/44.1, as I don't have any files above that quality (most of my stuff is uncompressed cd-rips though), so just for kicks, I tried bumping the DAC up to 24/96. All of my issues with the Microstreamer's have been resolved. I'm still running some comparisons, as it could be a psychological thing, but the soundstage seems to have opened up, bass is more defined, and ukes and banjos have been lifted out of their "hole." So my question is, does the higher bit/sample conversion of the DAC make a difference even when the files are at a lower bit/sample rate?

 

[StudioSound]

Most DAC chips provide the best SNR around 96kHz, and if you are adjusting the sound in the digital domain in any way (reducing the volume control or using ReplayGain) then increasing the bit-depth to 24-bits is beneficial.

So if your DAC does not internally upsample audio to 96kHz, it is certainly possible that upsampling it externally may give better results.
And even if your DAC does resample internally, which many do, there may be a difference in how the Microstreamer is upsampling compared to your DAC. Not necessarily better or worse, but different.

 

[wes008]

Thanks mate. I think I understand a bit better now  

 

[bogi]

better to upsample 44.1 -> 88.2, 48 -> 96.

 

[wes008]

Quote:

better to upsample 44.1 -> 88.2, 48 -> 96.

I thought I read that was better somewhere. Explanation?