With DVD-Audio (not an audio only DVD-video) there is no need to upsample from 16/44.1 to 16/48. You can burn the CD quality 16/44.1 files right to DVD-Audio without upsampling.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=52933

"If you're playing back 16-bit 44.1kHz sampled content without any processing, and the DAC is ideal, then increasing the sample rate or bitdepth will make no difference to the output quality. If the DAC is non-ideal, then upsampling in software can improved the measured performance. If the DAC is terrible, then ABXing this imrpovement by listening is possible (especially with torture signals!)."

If you're going to upsample 16/44.1 to 16/48 to be able to make an audio only DVD-video disc, then I would use a software program like Audacity or Soundforge at the highest quality settings with anti alias filter. So you are saying that you can input 16/44.1 files into Audio DVD Creator and it will upsample to 16/48 for you, then author the DVD? I'm not sure how much of a quality difference there would be between Audio DVD Creator's upsampling and Audacity's or Soundforge.

If you upsample and bit expand from 16/44.1 to 24/96, then you will not be able to fit as many minutes of music on a disc, which is a major drawback, esp. if it doesn't make a huge difference in sound quality. Maybe you could try upsampling and bit expanding one 16/44.1 show that you have to 24/96 with Audacity or SF, then doing an A/B comparison. If the 24/96 sounds noticeably better with your DVD player & Digital to Analog converter combo, then go for it, if you don't mind fitting less minutes of music on a disc. My guess is it probably won't make a huge difference in sound quality even if you have a lower end player.

As for gear, I would get a DVD-A/V player or receiver with a real multibit DA converter, not a 1 bit converter with high sampling frequency. Denon, Onkyo, and Yamaha are good consumer brands. Parasound and Adcom are a couple of good affordable audiophile brands. www.stereophile.com and www.audiogon.com would definitely be worth checking out for used gear and gear recommendations. Careful, some DVD-A/V players will only play DVD-R and not DVD+R. www.ecost.com has good deals on new and refurbished gear. You may want to wait a couple years to buy a new standalone player until the format war that is currently going on between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is over and a winner is declared. Then buy a player that supports DVD-Audio. It looks like the superior format Blu-Ray will be the winner as Blockbuster is backing it.