Non-audio DAC chips in audio DAC

[stolbovoy]

Reading claims about superior sound quality of NOS multibit DACs, and looking at the specs of audio and non-audio DACs I wonder does anyone tried to develop DAC using modern non-audio DACs chips with noise shaping?

One of the things I've noticed that there is no fast enough non-audio DAC chips with resolution higher then 16-18 bits. At least no TI and AD ones. That makes me wonder about degree of marketing B/S in audio DACs' 24bit specs.

 

[b-square]

24-bit audio DACs really are 24-bit, it's not marketing hype. Non-audio DAC applications do not generally require that much resolution (and lots of folks would argue you don't need it for audio apps, either).

 

[Pulse-R]

non-audio (i.e. Industrial Measurement) rarely has need for such a wide dynamic range that audio has, so often even 12-bit DAC / ADC is more than adequate for measurement systems. If you want to look more closely at a particular signal, then you would use a prescaler (amplifier) before the ADC, or after the DAC to get the desired signal strength. This is like many Oscilloscope, or Spectrum Analysers.

Although, having said that, many of the DAC duties in non-audio equipment are done by PWM and integrated by a simple filter. Or for high precision signal generators, are analog or PLL oscillators.

Audio applications, it seems, are quite unique in their requirement for medium speed (Audio frequency), high precision converters. RF is faster, but lower resolution, while varying DC signals are slower, but also lower resolution ~ 40dB max dynamic range for 12-bit.

 

[flshzug]

o'rly stereophile measured the best d-s dac to be 20-21 bit if im not mistaken 24bit = LOL, so b-square stop spreading rumors man

 

[el`Ol]

There was a Jadis DAC with an AD 12-bitter that had reference status in a german magazine a few years ago. I don´t know whether they still use ADs.

 

[stolbovoy]

Shouldn't true 24 bits DAC have -144 dB THD+N in 0 - Fs/2 range?
Also I'd expect that 32767 -32767 32767 sequence will produce different output then 32767 -32766 32767 etc. How can it be achieved with frequencies modern audio DACs run on even with Fs=44.1kHz?

 

[peranders]

No DAC today can produce 24 true bits but there are industrial (slow) DAC's that can produce more or less 24 bits.

 

[b-square]

They are actually 24-bit DACs. Whether their analog outputs have the equivalent resolution is a different question. As is well documented, a number of cheap, 16-bit audio DACs are taking in 16-bit data, but aren't producing 16-bits of resolution on the analog side.