Just to clarify a couple of things: 1) on the old 0-40 scale, each step was 1.25dB 2) on the current 0-100 scale, each step is 0.5dB 3) on the 0-100 scale no bits are irretrievably lost from the 16 originals until the 16th (LSB) bit is shifted below the 24th (LSB) of the bit of the volume control (ignoring the DAC for a moment). 4) each complete bit-shift costs 6dB of SNR (or dynamic range if you insist) 5) With real 24-bit DAC's you can forget about the bottom 4 bits (of the 24) because the DAC's aren't perfect, for both 16 and 24-bit sources they will just carry noise which you can't hear anyway, even at greatly boosted listening volumes. So you are left with a 20-bit DAC and 4-bits of available shift before the DAC loses the ability to recover the full 16-bit "information". Even for those 4 bits there is a cost of increased SNR (6dB per bit) but you won't hear this SNR impact unless the original signal is very low indeed, because making something that is very very quiet (the self-noise of the DAC) 16 times louder still means it is very quiet...
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=164814&postcount=12 -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... Touch(wired/XP) - TACT 2.2X (Linear PSU) + Good Vibrations S/W - MF Triplethreat(Audiocom full mods) - Linn 5103 - Aktiv 5.1 system (6x LK140's, ESPEK/TRIKAN/KATAN/SEIZMIK 10.5), Townsend Supertweeters, Blue Jeans Digital,Kimber Speaker & Chord Interconnect cables Kitchen Boom, Outdoors: SB Radio ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=77725 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
