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Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

RE: solution

If you don't get the levels balanced out than any tests will be meaningless. They should be balanced within 0.1 dB and this requires a test tone and voltmeter.

You can put an attenuator in the output of one DAC, or for fairness, one in the output of each DAC. Another possibility if you have audio editing software is to make two copies of the original audio file under test and then reduce the volume of both copies slightly, with the amount of adjustment depending on gain differences with the DACs. You want to change the volume of both files and redither so that both files get degraded similarly. With 24 bit files and a 24 or 32 bit DAC this is probably the best way to match levels as there will be less sonic effects than using an attenuator.

Some people say you don't have to balance levels to get fair results if your volume control has continuous adjustment and you reset it before each switch to a different random position. This might be able to eliminate level bias but the added confusion will make hearing differences more difficult, so I don't recommend it. This method will not work if your volume control has the typical 1 or 2 dB steps.


Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


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  • RE: solution - Tony Lauck 12:27:39 08/30/14 (0)

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