That's a key point. Even "cheap and nasty" digital can perform in a very satisfying way if one knows the right things to address; it may not have the last ounce of refinement, but will provide very musical and subjectively rich reproduction, with all detail intact.
I agree, and in fact we used to do the same thing in the analogue world with the Hi-Fi chain (and still do), things like looking for well-matched components and accurate reproduction.
The same principle applies, but in a digital chain. And it is often the case that the components in the digital chain weren't really conceived for use for audiophile enjoyment.
But when you study and know where to optimise, you can reap some great rewards.
Sure - some people's ears do get impressed by large multiples of oversampling, placebo works wonders.
I'm not following - what is about attack dynamics? The SQ? If so then I agree but more oversampling reduces perceived dynamics, and for very good engineering reasons.
In my experiments with filters I've not yet noticed any degradation caused by post-ringing. Not saying it doesn't exist just that as far as I can see its over-hyped. Pre-ringing's another matter though.
Memory is DDR3 in all PCs these days, layout is pretty similar from one to another...
Why the noise in PCs is a surprise shocks me😱 Galvanic isolation, that's the way to do it problem goes away.... I would never use a PC directly without some isolation preferably wireless. As long as the digital data gets to the DAC (a trivial problem these days) then if you are neurotic about pS of jitter re-clock it... Job done.
Putting a linear supply on a PC wont do that much, PCs generate their own noise just by working and most PCs are designed to a cost, even the devices for memory control etc. are designed to minimise the number of layers so PCs by their very nature are quite noisy, but many use sound cards with no reported problems......
The problem isn't at DC though, the problem's from AC noise coupling. So nope, galvanic isolation would need to come along with zero capacitance across the isolation barrier to make the problem 'go away'. Nobody's done that so far to my knowledge.
That's what I experienced when I recently bought a USB isolator in the hope that this would improve the noise level in measurements through an external soundcard. The very peculiar effect this had is that the 3rd harmonic shot up in level in a loop measurement and that I can't measure noise anymore because the program I use for that doesn't pass through the device unscathed. The problem is that the rise in the 3rd is just 10 dB over a - 93 dB level, so just playing music you probably would never really register, and if you did, you might even think that the device 'enriched' all timbres.
This being said, you triggered my curiousity when you wrote that for technical reasons oversampling gives you less perceived dynamics. Can you please explain how that comes about? Thnx.
Gino, I don't want to damage peoples business. The USB isolator works from a technical point of view and may be suited to other uses. It also may be my particular setup. If it really were a lemon I wouldn't mind telling you openly on the site the make and model, but here that is not the case. If you are about to purchase a thing like this, I will tell you through a pm, though, just ping me.
Riiight. This is at face value a very daft statement. A DAC is a custom chunk of silicon, not a microprocessor. In many cases it runs at the same speed whatever you feed it. In others it doesn't but you cannot use a PC analogy to think about it.
Its a matter of a DAC's dynamic performance - all DACs take a finite amount of time to settle when their output changes - while settling the DAC's output is wrong. Oversampling means the DAC's spending a greater proportion of its time between the 'right' output values meaning there's more noise. There's also the matter of DAC glitching and digital feedthrough - both of which tend to increase as a DAC's asked to deliver more output samples per unit time.
Wireless🙂
Toshlink....
Isolation and filtering can cut the noise down to acceptable levels for USB.
USB isolators using the ADUM devices are only good for USB 2 full speed 12Mbps.
🙂
http://www.coilcraft.com/pdfs/1206usb.pdf
cos I know its you favourite type of noise....
Toshlink....
Isolation and filtering can cut the noise down to acceptable levels for USB.
USB isolators using the ADUM devices are only good for USB 2 full speed 12Mbps.
🙂
http://www.coilcraft.com/pdfs/1206usb.pdf
cos I know its you favourite type of noise....
I have an upsampler and find that it does a lot for the treble area of the sound. Less harsh and less fatigue.
I'd rather have it on than off
I'd rather have it on than off
Spot on. Offline upsampling of files helped this part of the spectrum very noticeably in a very basic desktop PC configuration, for me.
Hi and thanks for the kind and useful reply.
I will email you because i am very interested in this devices.
Just an electrical isolator maybe could be enough but i am interested to know what the market offers.
Thanks a lot again.
Regards, gino
I'll hazard a guess that your DAC's not a multibit one. Most likely you're using an S-D DAC whose output rate does not change as a result of the upsampling process, but whose digital filter does change (to a simpler one) as the input rate's increased.
Could you please point out where in the PCM1704 datasheet is that data ? I've been reading it twice and cannot find comparative specs wrt sample rates. Everything is given at 96khz. The only comparative graph I can find shows how the thd+n is lower at 24bits.
The pcm1794's datasheet is more explicit wrt to that phenomenon, with thd+n going from 0,0004% to 0,0015% from 44.1k to 192k.
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