mswlogo;543960 Wrote: > I totally agree and that is probably a better way to look at it. It has > a fixed total SNR. 100dB. By attenuating digitally your sliding within > a 100dB window. Which is what I said, 100dB is about 16.5bits. I think > we are on the same page there. I agree you can call it what ever you > want and what ever number of bits. It's 100dB window on taht DAC. And > basically you want to stay with in it (keep the bits of your CD within > it). > > So on that unit you can attenuate about 3dB for "free". That's all the > elbow room there is. Big whoop. mswlogo, Yes. I think this is the predominant effect, anyway. Of course, moving bits down in any DAC brings the DAC's noise floor up but the point is, if that's low enough to begin with (say -120db like in a TP) that's still not a big effect compared to quantisation noise in a 16 bit signal. So you lose a tad of fidelity but this has little impact because the limitation of the 16 bit signal is the dominant factor in that situation.
You're right though - the Squeezebox is limited. With my SB3 digital attenuation will hurt dynamic range measurably. I don't hear it - but I accept one might with certain systems and music. I will probably get round to buying a Benchmark DAC1 or something but only when I upgrade the rest! Darren -- darrenyeats http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/A3H57URKQB8AQO/ref=cm_pdp_content_listmania/203-7606506-5721503. (Inguz bass EQ'd) SB3 -> (pre bypassed) Krell KAV-300i -> PMC AB-1 (caps bass EQ'd) Desktop -> Genius Slab SW-flat2.1 700 Sennheiser HD 25-1 II ------------------------------------------------------------------------ darrenyeats's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10799 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
