Art Dio sampling

Can anyone help me to better understand sampling with an ART Dio. I've just bought one and, when I use it as a DAC hooked up to a cd player, there appears to be the option to select the sampling rate for use with an internal clock or to use the external clock in the player. Using a button I can cycle through the various options. According to ART's advice, I must use the setting for external clock, as other settings are really relevant to use of this gadget as an ADC. But, when I manually select the options, it plays back fine with 44.1 and 88.2khz, but with 48 and 96kHz, it plays back with crackling from one (but not both of the channels). This seems to be consistent with ART's advice, but I've got a few questions and wondered if anyone here can help:

1. If I can use the ART's internal clock rather than that of my player, is this preferable, or is it just down to listen and see which I prefer?

2. Why would ART say that, when hooked up to a cd player, the setting for external clock must be used when some of the manual settings with the internal clock work just fine.

3. I thought the DAC would upsample up to 96kHz, but have I got it wrong that such a DAC will do this and will it only cope up to 88kHz? This is particularly of interest as when I've tried 96kHz, while there is the crackling on one channel, the immediate impression is of a little more clarity and vibrancy.

Had the DAC for a day and, so far, I've been impressed with the quality. Thought it would take a long hard running in, but it sounded reasonable out of the box, contrary to some things I've seen written about it on the Net. If it gets better with longer running in, I'll be well pleased.

Thanks guys

 

impressed with the quality? even with the crackling?
imv dont worry about the clocks or the hertz trust your ears - what your ears are telling you is that one setting sounds best but has a crackling problem on one channel - however..you pays your money and takes your choice.

What else have you tried and what is your budget?

 

ART Dio

As menionted, the crackling only applies if I try forcing the sampling rate to 48/96kHz. Otherwise it's clear. I wondered if there was a way of getting 96kHz without the crackle. But, ultimately, you've got to be right and I will trust my ears. It's just that with a new gadget, I like to explore it a bit before settling down with it.

I don't have a budget as such, but I keep getting tempted into adding to what I already have which is in the budget to almost mid fi region. Got a Superdac which is also very good even in unmodified form. I've little doubt that both the Superdac and the Art Dio will rival or even outgun many a more expensive DAC. Just that loads of people rate 'pride of ownership' highly so the looks and quodus of a product matter as much as it's real performance IMO.

 

88.2khz almost invariably sounds better than 96khz IMO.

Then again, 44.1khz sounds even better if done properly.

 

Ahmen to that

 

Another amen to that.

Wow, I can agree with merlin and WM on something

Michael.

 

Steady Mike, you might be forming a habbit, and that just wouldn't cricket

 

This place is becoming really boring

 

ART Dio sampling`

So, anyone care to help me with my original post and questions

 

OK,

well I thought the advice to stick with 88.2khz or 44.1khz was very helpful but...

About the clock. It sounds like the unit is designed to latch onto the clock signal embedded in the data stream. That's normal. You would need a clock sync input on the transport to slave that to the Dac's internal clock, plus a clock out or AES output on the Dac. Some pro gear has this.

The crackling sounds like the internal SRC is not up to scratch to me, seems to have an issue with assyncronous conversion. Seeing as this is IMO not desirable anyway, it would not seem to be an issue.

If you think 96khz sounds better it is likely either one of the forum's favourite mind tricks or some distortion caused by the SRC process.

 

ART Dio

Thanks Merlin for your thoughts. I'm gonna have a word with ART's technical support to see if they can put me right as a non-techie and explain their user guide to me better. BTW what is SRC?

 

SRC = Sample Rate Conversion