Hello bmichels,
To be clear, I don't own the D5000. I have a sample from the distributor David Beetles at Hammertone Audio in B.C. Canada. Dave has asked me to test the D5000 and to write a report on my findings for my blog at myhifilife.com. I have written a few reports on Allnic equipment in the past and Dave appreciated my work, thus he sent me one of the first sample D5000 units to try. I added my comments to this thread because of how impressed I was with Kevalin's original posting on the technical design of the new Allnic DAC.
So far I have not tested the sonic effects of the up-sampling feature. It wasn't until I read this thread that I was fully aware of what was happening with the processing options for either PCM or DSD, as the unit came without a manual describing these features. It's fairly obvious what the PCM up-sampling does, however I was not certain what type of processing was going on with the DAC when engaging DSD, either native or with PCM files.
Technically I've had mixed results with DSD files so far, and have had trouble with both the AES/EBU and SPDIF connection options for high resolution audio files. I have been in communication with both Allnic and Waversa regarding my findings. As such my listening to date has been in native-only mode with PCM audio files via USB, ranging from 16/44.1 to 24/192.
For my own musical selections I tend to value recording quality, production level and digital mastering equally, and as such I gravitate toward playing files in their native mastering format, trying to avoid getting hung up on how the sample rate or bit depth is effecting the listening experience. The most honest comment I can make thus far is that with quality audio recordings, of any bit depth or sample rate, the D5000 sounds marvellous. When I have a more concrete or thorough analysis on the details of the unit to share I will certainly alert this thread board. As others gain experience with the new DA I'm will also be curious to read of those findings as well.
Regards,
David