Oversampling: How and Why

[the_bertrum]

I'm not sure what you mean by a DAC's "native rate".

The rate to which the DAC upsamples with its internal interpolation filter, a rate which I assumed it would not bother to use its internal interpolation filters since the input was already at that rate. I realise this is a poor assumption based on the fact that the chip I have practical experience of (PCM5122) does have this bypass feature.

Like with all audio questions you should listen to it and see if you think it sounds better or not.

Absolutely, and a good thing too becasue everytime I think I've "got" the theory, I find I'm woefully wrong - but I know if I can hear something.
On the back of this discussion, I spent a few hours re-evaluating by sampling choices and I find that yes I do still prefer the sound I get when setting the sample rate to 384 kHz, but the bit depth has no discernable effect.