According to your subjective experience, is it better to upsample to DSD (256 or 512) or PCM (max frequency allowed by your DAC).
Depends on the DAC and what it does internally. I use two dacs regularly. For one I definitely prefer DSD256 (more so than DSD512) and various filters and modulators for different music…though I will settle on one config for months with no changes…it’s a Sigma-Delta dac.
For my other, headphone setup, I prefer PCM without a doubt. It’s an R2R chip-based.
The max isn’t always the best. Try ‘lesser’ rates too. Not only are they less demanding on the upsampling hardware (although Roon upsampling really doesn’t demand much) the noise profile in the dac may very well be statistically better. Whether it’s audible or not if up to you.
For reference, I use HQPlayer embedded, for many years now, for my speaker system, and Roon upsampling for my HP system.
I think many/some confuse the reason for upsampling. It’s not to make the music/source better, rather to maximize the performance of a particular dac.
There are no absolutes in subjective preferences.
1 Like
All subjective as to what you perceive as better, myself i dont upsample, tried it but it never sounds right to me and prefer to let the devices do what they do themselves. Its what they where designed to do.
5 Likes
I went from PCM upsampling to DSD512 upsampling in roon and DSD256 upsampling in HQplayer back to letting my Cambridge CXN v2 do his pcm 384 upsampling.
OPRA for headphones and HouseCurve FIR filter for my room is good enough 
1 Like
I have DACs from Chord Electronics for my main rig and headphone setup. There’s little point buying descrete Chord DACs if you’re going to upsample.
When my main rig used a Burr Brown DAC, I preferred using 2x oversampling. My on-the-go DAC, a TANCHJIM Space, is fine with native resolution.
1 Like