Hirsch
Why is there a chaplain standing over his wallet?
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2001
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When I wrote about the GW Labs DSP, I noted that it was an improvement over the Monarchy DIP for jitter reduction, but that the upsampling feature was a disappointment. Even so, the GW Labs unit replaced my Monarchy, which retired to the closet. Silly of me. In a conversation on IRC, carlo mentioned the possibility of running them in series. After banging my head a few times at the obviousness of this, I tried it.
The digital chain is now Rotel RCD-955BX into Monarchy DIP MkII into GW Labs DPS into ART DI/O and finally out to the ZOTL. Those electrons have got to be exhausted going through all those components to get from the source to the amp...but even though they may be tired, they're marching in step and I can finally hear what upsampling does.
First off, the Monarchy and GW Labs in series work better even at 44.1 for jitter reduction. The high end is cleaner, and everything is a bit more detailed. But when the 24/96 mode is engaged, things change. It's as though a layer of noise disappears. The sense of depth increases. Going back to 16/44, it sounds like instruments are starting to smear. As I A/B, it sounds as though the upsampling is taking elements of the sound, and putting them together to make a more coherent whole.
Apparently, by reducing jitter in the incoming signal with the DIP first, the DSP's own jitter reduction and reclocking are having a much more dramatic effect on the sound. I had been contemplating upgrading my digital source, but may have to take a step back and pause. With both the DIP and DSP in front of it, the modded ART DI/O running 24/96 is sounding very good right now
The digital chain is now Rotel RCD-955BX into Monarchy DIP MkII into GW Labs DPS into ART DI/O and finally out to the ZOTL. Those electrons have got to be exhausted going through all those components to get from the source to the amp...but even though they may be tired, they're marching in step and I can finally hear what upsampling does.
First off, the Monarchy and GW Labs in series work better even at 44.1 for jitter reduction. The high end is cleaner, and everything is a bit more detailed. But when the 24/96 mode is engaged, things change. It's as though a layer of noise disappears. The sense of depth increases. Going back to 16/44, it sounds like instruments are starting to smear. As I A/B, it sounds as though the upsampling is taking elements of the sound, and putting them together to make a more coherent whole.
Apparently, by reducing jitter in the incoming signal with the DIP first, the DSP's own jitter reduction and reclocking are having a much more dramatic effect on the sound. I had been contemplating upgrading my digital source, but may have to take a step back and pause. With both the DIP and DSP in front of it, the modded ART DI/O running 24/96 is sounding very good right now