Dear friends,
About a year ago I snapped up the Philips SACD 963, partly because of its upsampling capability — it will upsample a standard Red Book CD to 96KHz or 192 KHz. In my experience with the player, this does add extra presence and depth to the sound. I'm very pleased. But there's always a snag somewhere, isn't there?
In this case, it's the playback of CD-Rs (recorded on a separate CD player and component CD burner, not a computer). Yes, the upsampling seems to work just dandy with CD-Rs, too … but (usually beginning several tracks into the disc) there are randomly timed popping sounds, not particularly loud but very distinct and annoying enough so that I have given up listening to CD-Rs through this player.
What's up with that?
I have been so impressed with the upsampling phenomenon that I have considered relegating the 963 to DVDs, SACDs and factory-made CDs, while getting a separate upsampling unit — either for my other system or to use in lieu of the 963's upsampling circuitry if that's where the popping originates.
But there appear to no longer be ads or articles about upsampling components. A few years ago I thought they were a serious rival to SACD and DVD-A and might well be more cost-effective if they came down in price from the $1200 Musical Fidelity pegged theirs at. But upsampling units no longer seem to be offered. Was this a good idea that flopped because manufacturers dropped the ball in marketing it?
