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Full Version: Comparison between ZERO and PSA DL-III DAC's
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oatmeal769
Test II from THIS POST in CD-R and Audio Hardware > Audio Hardware > GOOD non-oversampling DAC?

Clip is from "Night On Bald Mountain" composed by Modest Mussorgsky

Each clip is under 30 seconds in length.
Arnold B. Krueger
QUOTE (oatmeal769 @ Sep 28 2009, 20:21) *



There is also an approximate 1.8 dB difference in average RMS level.

I noticed that the average RMS levels differed by amounts that were significantly different from the difference in peak values. This may indicate that one of the DACs had considerable nonlinear distorion and thus failed the criteria of being "a good DAC".

The supplied samples pretty much *have* to sound different because of the apparent RMS level mismatch.

Once I corrected for most of the level mismatch, the spectral responses were nearly identical over the range from 40 to 16 KHz, and varied only by a fraction of a dB outside that.
oatmeal769
QUOTE (Arnold B. Krueger @ Sep 29 2009, 13:13) *
There is also an approximate 1.8 dB difference in average RMS level.
I noticed that the average RMS levels differed by amounts that were significantly different from the difference in peak values. This may indicate that one of the DACs had considerable nonlinear distorion and thus failed the criteria of being "a good DAC".
The supplied samples pretty much *have* to sound different because of the apparent RMS level mismatch.
Once I corrected for most of the level mismatch, the spectral responses were nearly identical over the range from 40 to 16 KHz, and varied only by a fraction of a dB outside that.
Would you please re-post them with your changes?
rpp3po
Could you post the original sample, so that it can be seen which of the two DACs is adding distortion?
oatmeal769
Progress with RMAA so far. There are two .htm files, two .png archives, and a .jpg of the spectral analysis typical of what I saw prior to initiating the tests.
Will upload test .wav's if needed as well.
oatmeal769
This is just the MoBo's onboard set-up.
oatmeal769
E-Mu 1212m RMAA test using balanced to balanced at +4 dB input levels, and +10dB output settings. There is a default RMAA test setting that does this in the E-Mu software. Pretty handy.
oatmeal769
The PSA DL-III Balanced XLR to balanced TRS, unbalanced RCA, and balanced XLR / unbalanced RCA tests. Note the polarity differences...
Also included is the ZERO test.

These are "so far" my next experiment is to make a 'turnaround' set of RCA cables to test polarity with just RCA connections.
oatmeal769
Latest Attempt. There are two files for each DAC.
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