A decent DAC will blow away most sound cards any day.
I'm not a believer in "Upsampling" - to work as describes it'd have to use an enhancer or exciter to replace the missing information to make it sound better.

I suppose it could be a matter of the DAC adding some of the things we like to hear from tube amps etc - still a bit of smoke n mirrors.

I have a Cambridge Audio Topaz amp and it's excellent quality: build and sound.


Cheers
rayc
"What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe