Hi. I have the Topping D10s which according to what I've read uses the "Apodizing fast linear" filter. Now I am slowly learning about slow/fast linear/minimum phase filters and why they are needed before the signal gets reconstructed from PCM to analog. But I cannot find any details about what makes apodizing filters, as implemented by ESS, different. I love the sound of the D10s and I think it is because of the apodizing filter. I am not sure about this, however. I judge this based on the fact that I like the D10s more than ODAC (original with ESS DAC) which I used to have (sold it recently after comparing it to the D10s) and ODAC from what I know uses a linear phase fast filter. And also I judge this based on that when I upsample in foobar2000 from 44.1 to 96 or 192 KHz (most of my music is in 44.1 KHz) using the SoX plugin, I just cannot make it sound as good as when I do not upsample at all and just send 44.1 to the DAC, no matter what SoX settings I use (minimal/intermediate/linear phase, %passband, allow/disallow aliasing). I just feel like the treble is smoother somehow and I like that. So can anyone please explain how is an apodizing filter different from non-apodizing one?
(all my assumptions are just assumptions and I would likely not recognize the apodizing filter from a non-apodizing one in a blind test so I'm not trying to make a claim that anything is better than anything else, this is all just how I feel I hear things)
(all my assumptions are just assumptions and I would likely not recognize the apodizing filter from a non-apodizing one in a blind test so I'm not trying to make a claim that anything is better than anything else, this is all just how I feel I hear things)