Can upsamplers alter a CD's sonic performance?

Depends on total design of CDP/DAC, just because a unit has upsampling DAC doesn't mean it will sound better then one that doesn't, but it has the potential to if other design issues are properly addressed.

The reason the original signal is upsampled, by adding dither, is noise atrifacts can be removed easier without harming original signal. The type of DA filtering used is crucial to perserving natural sounding high frequencies,
and overall natural detail and focus.

There are other issues, jitter control/clock design, use of audiophile grade capacitors/resistors, control of EMI/RFI and many other design details are needed to make a great sounding digital front end.

Also because of this many cheaper external DACS sound better than very expensive CDPs with built in DAC. The last 3 yrs has produced more improvement in digital sound than the previous 20, upsampling is one piece of this puzzle.

Everyone who comes to this post needs to read Megasam's response. As he stated; with upsampling, noise artifacts can be removed easier without harming the signal.

This is very simple and straight forward explanation to why upsampling can potentially improve a digital player or dac.

I feel that many of the publications and other so called "experts" are confusing audiophiles about what upsampling is, and why it works. In my opinion, Megasams' answer sums up what upsampling does in one simple sentence.

Last August I posteed a thread asking if a CD droped into a transport tray hooked to an upsampling DAC would saidCD sound significantly better. Well, 2 weeks ago I bought an Electrocompaniet ECD1 192 upsampling DAC and hooked it to my MAC 205 player. It was a demo so the unit was burned in. WOW! What an unbelievable improvement in the sound of my CDs. I just can't say enough to express the changes this upsampler made!

i read in a canadian mag that they upsample to dsd before playing. well, my ns500v sounds better as a cdp than my original setup (philips cdr/alchemy ditb) which sounded fairly good to begin with. my 20 yr old daughter noticed this on her CDs also and reinforced this when i mentioned it to her. i believe it was an incubus cd that she said she thought someone was in the next room where the player was. at any rate, i like the sound of my ns500v especially at the price of $161 delivered.
.......regards.....tr

Hello Pls1, can you please expand on this. I can't quite follow.

"The reason that upsampling improves the sound is that it allows the DAC to convert the digital info to analog with fewer added artifacts that are a result of the DAC's internal conversion algorithms and filters"

- How is it converting the digital to analog with fewer added artifacts?
- Where is the analog signal goes from there?

"These added analog artifacts (which are NOT part of the original CD's encoded data) make the analog signal sound harsh and congested. "

- Where is the upsampling come-in? Will it clean out the artifacts while the signal still in digital or analog?

Thanks, William

ISTT