Which distortion is that? You've said that you don't remember how you determined that DA was causing the distortion spectra you posted. Have you now remembered? How have you determined that all the other capacitor non-idealities are not significant?
For the umpty umpth time, the question isn't the measurements, it's the interpretation and the unsupported claim that DA is the source of nonlinearity. Why is that so difficult to understand?
Reading the thread over some days I started to develop the suspicion that even some of the better informed amongst the participants have no real idea of what a capacitor is. When DF96 posted a clarification I realised that my suspicion had been entirely justified.
Linear distortion. OR the kind we don't give a damn about. This requires 2 tones to see it. You put 2 tones into a filter, they come out unchanged other than in relative amplitude. Non-flat frequency response. Benign in some circumstances.
Non-linear distortion. The only kind we give a damn about. This is where you put a sinewave in, and the output no longer looks like a sinewave. Because the flaw repeats with the same frequency as the input, the flaw contains energy at the same or multiples of the input frequency. We call this harmonic distortion. It is a consequence of non-linearity in the response of the output to the input. This is what everybody will understand you as referring to if you say 'waveform distortion.'
What are you talking about? Some other kind of distortion? Bear in mind that an aperiodic nonlinearity would manifest as noise, and appear as such in any simple measurement of THD. Plus N.
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He wasn't talking about any distortion spectra. He was responding to your comment, "Don't intend to spend time on those. Just the distortion from DA."
He was asking what distortion from DA are you talking about?
se
I already answered that. are you guys paying Any attention or just babbling on.
THx-RNMarsh
I've already answered that.
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Anyway, go about your merry ways, all, tell us all the various ways a perfect capacitor really isnt and all the many already known sources of inperfections. Some which are linear and some non-linear. All are high in polar and low in the better known films. The chemistry of what causes which distortion is only an interesting exercise but changes nothing but an added foot note somewhere to be lost and forgotten.
THx-RNMarsh
You have all the info needed to use polar caps or films and several why's and where-fores.
For those more interested in a more up to date engineering view of DA.... this 2008 article is recommended reading.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.139.998&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Sy and others can tell you what parasitic causes linear and what causes non-linear. Its kind of late in the game now but we got rid of polar, and then got rid of film also, ecept in limited audio apps... like filters. The lowest distortion of all types will be from films, of course. Otherwise, we dont use any coupling caps any more... and it also sounds a LOT better. So, this comes full circle... it started with an audible inquiry about polar coupling caps, then a look-see for differences with high rez S/H ADC comparisons... the difference lead to speculation it was DA to explain the waveform shape difference..... that led to my DA tester. The conclusion of it all was things just sounded better with film and best with no cap.
Maybe its all V coeff. Does it matter really? I dont want high Vcoeff nor high DA in a cap. Film is better and no cap is best still. Gone to servo.
When SY's expose of coupling cap behavior exposes the real truth of material distortions (esp non-linear)..... it is too little too late to have any affect in audio apps. But, its always nice to set the record details straight if it needs it.
On to the next thing: Got the ADC/DAC to run experiments with. I talked to John S. at BenchMark and he got me pointed in a likely direction for my answers.... but we still dont now why HD downloads sound better than my CD if I am coming out digital on CD player to excellent DAC. But, it too seems to have many places to make things go wrong. he suggested some studios have cut out the DAW and do mixing et al in analog then back to digital.
But he seemed to think about 6 years ago was when the big changes/improvements occured with DAW and things have been a lot better ever since. John gave me lots of nice tips to keep digital from messing up when using a computer and also suggested I take a look at a streaming service called Title (stream in loss-less format). Nice person to talk to... knowledgeable without the ego trips.
Everything keeps getting better
THx-RNMarsh
For those more interested in a more up to date engineering view of DA.... this 2008 article is recommended reading.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.139.998&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Sy and others can tell you what parasitic causes linear and what causes non-linear. Its kind of late in the game now but we got rid of polar, and then got rid of film also, ecept in limited audio apps... like filters. The lowest distortion of all types will be from films, of course. Otherwise, we dont use any coupling caps any more... and it also sounds a LOT better. So, this comes full circle... it started with an audible inquiry about polar coupling caps, then a look-see for differences with high rez S/H ADC comparisons... the difference lead to speculation it was DA to explain the waveform shape difference..... that led to my DA tester. The conclusion of it all was things just sounded better with film and best with no cap.
Maybe its all V coeff. Does it matter really? I dont want high Vcoeff nor high DA in a cap. Film is better and no cap is best still. Gone to servo.
When SY's expose of coupling cap behavior exposes the real truth of material distortions (esp non-linear)..... it is too little too late to have any affect in audio apps. But, its always nice to set the record details straight if it needs it.
On to the next thing: Got the ADC/DAC to run experiments with. I talked to John S. at BenchMark and he got me pointed in a likely direction for my answers.... but we still dont now why HD downloads sound better than my CD if I am coming out digital on CD player to excellent DAC. But, it too seems to have many places to make things go wrong. he suggested some studios have cut out the DAW and do mixing et al in analog then back to digital.
But he seemed to think about 6 years ago was when the big changes/improvements occured with DAW and things have been a lot better ever since. John gave me lots of nice tips to keep digital from messing up when using a computer and also suggested I take a look at a streaming service called Title (stream in loss-less format). Nice person to talk to... knowledgeable without the ego trips.
Everything keeps getting better
THx-RNMarsh
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The very first thing I would do is take that player out of the equation. Rip a critical track from a CD, put it on the server and play it through the same chain as for the HD material, with the CD player switched off, plug pulled out of the wall! Does that track now sound different? If so, electrical pollution is coming via the transport electronics working ...
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