DitherMan Wrote: > Agreed but it's also linked to the residual noise level of the DAC. Over > the full dynmaic range, the lowest signal levels will be buried in the > noise floor, though not to say inaudible. By turning down the gain of > the DAC for low level output, you can also reduce the noise level and > run the DAC at higher digital levels. For sure there's no such thing as a perfectly linear 24 bit DAC, so the least significant bits are buried in noise, as you say.
So let's consider a typical real world setup. Suppose your 24 bit DAC is only linear to 21 bits, and you are listening at -48dB relative to max level. You are now effectively using a 13 bit DAC. Sounds alarming, but you still have 78dB of dynamic range, and even in a state of the art listening room with an ambient noise level around 20dBA, I contend that the quantisation noise will be way below the threshold of audibility. -- cliveb ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cliveb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=348 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=19697 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
