Please explain old specs vs new

 

New member
Username: Mikejdewalt

Post Number: 1
Registered: Feb-05
I thought by posting to this section, I could get the most informed people on D/A converters to give me a simple explanation. I only partially understand D/A converters, but it really is a whole new language to me. I have an older CD player and am looking to upgrade to a DVD/CD player.

The 1992 Kenwood describes itself as:
1 bit multi D/A conversion.
Oversampling = 4 fs

The Onkyo DV-CP702 is Playback DAC 192 kHz/24-bit
but also says Frequency Response (Audio CD) 44.1 kHz sampling 4 Hz to 20 kHz

1. Can anyone break this down into a comparison using words I might understand?

2. What about that onkyo vs the onkyo DX-C390 (their stand alone CD player) that just lists digital filter 352.8 kHz, 128 X oversampling... do you think I would easily hear an unmistakably better sound on my Swan Diva 2.1's?

All opinions and comments are welcome.
 

J. Vigne
Unregistered guest

In both cases Red Book (standard) CD's are sampled at the same frequency according to the CD statdards established back in the late 1970's. There are some players and DAC's that now use upsampling, and some using oversampling, to take advantage of the (claimed) better resolution of the higher sampling rates. The new DVD player apparently does not take advantage of this higher sampling rate of CD's, though it would appear the stand alone player does. Disagreements abound about the virtues of upsampling and oversampling and how it should be done. What the Onkyo CD player appears to do is take the standard 44.1kHz sampling rate and oversample from that number. Most of the more costly upsampling units will first convert 44.1kHz to 48kHz sampling to take advantage of some antialiasing in the playback. (Aliasing will create low level noise in the audible rqnge.) The upsampling units then oversample the 48kHz rate to a multiple of that number (96, 192, etc.). The benefit of both over and up-sampling is to allow the use of filters that have less effect on the phase and timing errors that afflict a format whose top frequency was limited to 20kHz. In essence you are trying to fool the filter into thinking there is more information than really exists. In neither case can more information be added to what is on the disc. What can be done, as claimed by the proponents of both up and over, is to not add information (distortion) generated by the function of digital to analog conversion.

Whether you will hear a difference is too subjective and objective to answer. What you listen for is the main qualifier. However, the basic quality of each unit can vary drastically in too many other areas to make a judgement base solely on the sampling rate. You're asking the equivalent of "will a four door car be better than a two door car".


 

J. Vigne
Unregistered guest

http://www.aslgroup.com/dcs/upandover.htm

Put "upsampling CD" in a search engine.


 

New member
Username: Mikejdewalt

Post Number: 2
Registered: Feb-05
Thanks J. Vigne!!! Exactly what I was looking for, including the last 2 lines which drove the point home. -thanks for the link as well.
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