On Tue, 2005-08-30 at 12:58 -0700, mazurek wrote: > I am sending the output of the squeezebox to a behringer digital > equalizer to a benchmark dac. I'd like to make sure I am getting the > best possible quality.
The audiophile answer would be to not use the equalizer. The fewer things in the chain to mess it up, the better. A lot of audiophile preamps and integrated amps don't even have bass and treble knobs for the same reason, fewer things to mess up the music. > Also the equalizer has a dithering setting, should this > be on or off with the squeezebox output? Dither is critical every time you reduce the number of bits in a signal. If you are feeding the Benchmark and it is doing 24 bit processing, there is no reduction in the number of bits. But you may be doing something. If you multiply two 24 bit numbers together, you get a 48 bit answer. Or more properly, up to a 48 bit answer depending on what you are multiplying. If you then map that answer back to 24 bits, you need dithering. BTW, the Behringer brand is not normally considered in the same class as the Benchmark DAC-1. They have good products at very good prices, but audiophiles sometimes scoff at the brand. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
