Upsampling in Roon is not compelling

I know the argument for doing upsampling in Roon, rather than in the DAC.
I have tried it, and I find it not compelling, with my good DACs, like Meridian 818v3 and DSP8000SE, and the Chord Hugo 2. I hear no difference.

And that includes MQA, where I let Roon do the first unfold (because I do DSP room correction). People have suggested that I should upsample in Roon with minimum phase filter, but if I don’t the Meridian does it on its own, with the same type of filter (to 704/768). And whatever the Chord does is just as good.

Roon does let me tinker with different filters and upsampling levels, and DSD. But I’m not interested in tinkering, once it is good it’s about the music.

On some older, less good DACs it is a worthwhile improvement. They should be replaced, but I can’t upgrade everything at once. So yes, in these cases.

1 Like

It’s also not compulsory. What works best for each system and listener is the aim.

1 Like

Sure. No complaints. Just sharing my experience.
Especially wrt different quality DACs.

If I’m right, if my conclusion is generalizable, then getting a top quality DAC and getting a computer capable of upsampling is redundant.

Just like with the concern over noise transmission through a direct USB connection from a computer: we say that’s a bad thing so I get a MicroRendu, and I get a minimal Nucleus with internal SSD and no fan, no moving parts, and I get a DAC with good isolation, minimal sensitivity, and that’s all redundant too: when I do both network and direct USB connection from the Nucleus to the DAC, I hear no difference.

Belts and suspenders. Not ideal. Costly. And adds to the box count.

Of course, my conclusions should be tempered with the possibility of my having 16 bit ears.

1 Like

Hehe and we’ll have to trust you’re not being too generous with that figure Anders :grin:

All said in good fun of course.

I agree, I have Meridian MS200 DAC’s and they upsample and Apodise in a way designed by Meridian. Why would I, who know very little, second guess that?
The same or similar can be said of my Bluesound devices and they sound amazing to me.
TheBluesound Pulse 2 is the kind of device the Meridian F80 should have evolved into.

Let designers design and listeners listen, unless you want to tinker…

Very likely but if a high resolving piece of equipment should able to pick up a obvious difference. Up-sampling is the very first choice for me when I come to choose Roon. In my experience, up-sampling done in software provides more flexibility and better performance because the DAC chip is always runing at its highest and optimum performance.

I must admit I cant really see the point except in the case of an awkward DAC that whos sample rate cannot be controlled by roon?
Something like an ESS Sabre (or similar) not only up-samples, it does inter-sample peak handling, filtering etc and all at 32bit with plenty of processing headroom and digital precision volume control.

If this done on a player instead, then surely it will have to be re-dithered back down to 24 bit before sent to a DAC, and probably have to have it level dropped by 1 to 6dB to provide some processing headroom so that the final out can still fit in fixed point 24 bit, unless the DAC (endpoint) can accept 32 bit data?