[Audio Empire]

On Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:07:13 -0800, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article ):

"Chuck Finley" wrote in message
...
I bought an Escient music server several years ago when hard drive space
was
still relatively expensive. Most of my music on there is encoded at 320
and
192.

Shouldn't be a problem.

Reviews of DACs typically discuss how they can improve the sound of CD
quality or hi-rez music,

Generally, false claims. Audiophile myths. Dreams, not actualities.
Blatantly false sales pitches. The results of sighted evaluations.

Not exactly true. While I agree that most DACs that are constructed using IC
converters sound so much alike that the differences (if any) are trivial,
high-end DACs using discrete, proprietary circuitry not only can sound better
than the mass-produced IC chip-based DACs, but they sound significantly
different from one another. These differences manifest themselves mostly as
differences in top-end musicality and sound-staging. The better the DAC, the
more real the top-end sounds, strings, even percussion such as high-hats,
take on a sheen and a realism that one generally only hears live. This is
hardly subtle, and in a DBT is jaw-droppingly and statistically apparent.

but I'm wondering what effect they would have on compressed music.

No less false.

What is no less false? He's asking if a stand-alone DAC will help MP3 files
sound better. The answer, of course, is no. Any compression artifacts audible
before up-converting or playing through a mega-buck DAC, will be there after,
as well. The damage is done, there is no "fixing" it after the fact.

Would some kind of up-sampling device have to be added to the DAC for
this?

Up sampling, other than that which happens implicitly in modern DACs in
order to facilitate digital filtering, is yet another audiophile myth.

This seems to be a common reaction of people who have limited experience in
this area.