Playback Designs MPD3 Audition

The Absolute Sound was wrong.

Hi Johnathan

I have used up-sampling on many DAC's and fully appreciate its effects. In every case I can recall software upsampling sounded better - some benefiting more than others. For some reason the PD is one of the DAC's it made a big difference with.

I am not the only one to hear it with your DAC eg here is what one person posted:

'And yep, it changes a lot with upsampling. I took it all the way to 352.8kHz (8 x 44.1) with both CoreAudio and Izotope SRCs in Audirvana Plus 1.3.5. The top end gained in clarity and sparkle, the bottom end in stomp and bite. Sounded pretty decent.'

Is your view based on listening tests or a theoretical analysis?

Thanks
Bill

Hi Bill,

It is based on knowledge as well as listening.

I really do not know how you have it setup, but I assure you our DAC will do a much better job handling the conversion than a software player can.

So Jon Obviously using Jriver you suggest using no upsampling and just feed the MPD# native correct?

Hi Agsain Johnathon

It was a Mac-Mini using Audirvana Plus direct connected to Mac 501's into Lenehan ML3 Reference. You quite possibly know of the MAC's but probably not of the speakers. They are lined with steel to reduce resonances and use nothing but Duelund VSF Copper capacitors in the crossover. Each speaker is individually hand tuned for the best frequency response. They are ultra accurate, ultra revealing and are the fastest sounding thing I have ever heard - they for example blow B&W 802D's out of the water (not hard - I have seen the frequency response of those - without going into the details YUK). I am biased though because they are the speakers I have.

As I said everyone who has heard it noticed the same thing - it benefited greatly from up-sampling.

I am having someone over tomorrow to check out my Off-Ramp and if we get some time may be able to do the test again with a fresh set of ears.

Thanks
Bill