Would someone explain what "up sampling" means and how it can affect the sound?

Bombaywalla, I think that's the first time I understood someone's explanation of upsampling and remembered it minutes after reading it.
:-)
Thanks!

All the best,
Nonoise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(signal_processing)#Sampling_rate

Also, I would have to disagree with chayro’s statement “If you want to make an educated decision, buy a dac based on sound and not specs.” Seems to me it would be best to make an educated decision based on all possible information available. That would include specifications, your own subjective listening, opinions of reviewers, value of the component, etc.

I used to design and implement up and resampling algorithms (and others) for image processing of satellite and aerial photography imagery.

Never for digital audio. The problem is different there but the principles are similar.

DCS Ring DAC technology (expensive) is the one I know of from a few years back that struck me as the best in regards to its ability to randomize noise and produce best results on paper. I’ve heard DCS gear and what I heard was consistent with what I expected.

I wonder to what extent other vendors have done anything similar in recent years to close the gap and maybe even help bring the cost down?

Theoretically, I would rather have a non oversampling DAC done well than an oversampling one done just so-so.

In practice these days, as I mentioned most good quality DACs I hear even at modest cost sound very very good and I care less about the technical details than what I hear, although if buying without opportunity to hear, it never hurts to know how things work in comparison under the covers. Assuming the information provided is accurate and reliable of course. In many cases, its just a black box with little information on how things work. You always only know for sure by listening.

The DAC in my main system is a several years old non-oversampling  mhdt Constantine I picked up used a few years back for less than $400  mainly as an experiment. I’ve never a/b compared to DCS, but the sound reminds me of DCS in many ways and its been a keeper.

Recently I’ve experimented with analog out from newer Iphone and Ipad. The sound is a lot different than the mhdt but surprisingly good and perfectly listenable as well in its own terms.

I also have a Bel Canto c5i digital integrated amp. Its also most listenable and a big hitter in terms of sound quality and features, but sounds much different from the others still.

So lots of very good flavors of digital out there these days at all price points. You just gotta pick a few and try.

I'm a "computer geek", so when I bought my current DAC, I was concerned as well when I read that it upsampled to high resolution DSD as part of its way of operating.

I concer with mapman: " Just listen to the DAC and don't worry about upsampling."

It’s just a change of the sample rate, any change of the sample rate is a lossy process and is audible especially on accurate setups.

Google the Grammy 5.1 guide, they mentioned it there as well.

I prefer NOS (sample rate unchanged), but modern DAC with 8x upsample sounds pretty damn good so there is no need to pay insane premium for NOS DACs unless you are made of money.