96 or 192 kHz DAC?

[Fife]

I noticed some of the Harman Kardan receivers only have 96 kHz DAC. Will that be a problem over the long haul? Will the receiver have a hard time with more complex DVD soundtracks? Will it be able to handle SACD or DVD-A with the slower speeds? Thanks.

 

[MDS]

For DVD, its irrelevant, there are zero DVD-V discs with a 96 kHz sampling rate.

If you get into SACD or DVD-A, well that's a bit different. On the one hand, it's nice to have 192 kHz Dacs so that no downsampling has to occur, either in the player or the receiver, so you hear it (roughly) 'as the artist/engineer intended'. On the other hand, there's a good argument for the case that such a high sampling rate is overkill and does little for you.

Most mid-high end receivers tend to have 192 kHz dacs anyways. If the price is similar, I would opt for the one capable of playing the higher sample rates anyway.