Triode's USB 24/192 plug in - sound quality impressions

[Triode]

Actually, 'revealing system' indeed has a solid definition, so there is absolutely no need to try and relativize it and 'subjectivize' it. It is quite easy to compare two audio systems and provide quantifiable metrics as to why is one system more revealing than the other. The whole thing boils down to one aspect -- how quiet the system under study is. The noise that the system unavoidably generates while working can be measured and can be quantified, after which those metrics can be plotted and compared.

So that counts out my single ended triodes with their ac heaters then... I suggest we don't turn this thread into a debate on whether its possible to measure performance differences of hifi systems using single measurement metrics though as there are many other fora for that...

[magiccarpetride]

So that counts out my single ended triodes with their ac heaters then... I suggest we don't turn this thread into a debate on whether its possible to measure performance differences of hifi systems using single measurement metrics though as there are many other fora for that...

Sounds good to me. What type of a debate should we turn this thread into, then? After all, the title says 'sound quality impressions'. To me, that means, well... impressions, no?

[mlsstl]

Actually, 'revealing system' indeed has a solid definition, so there is absolutely no need to try and relativize it and 'subjectivize' it. It is quite easy to compare two audio systems and provide quantifiable metrics as to why is one system more revealing than the other....

That sounds great if you say it fast.

However, in the real world, when I hear someone's "revealing system" after they've told me that's what I'm going to hear, there is nothing predictable about what emerges.

Perhaps you've been blessed to be surrounded by people who use the phrase in a manner consistent with your definition, but that certainly hasn't been my experience. Maybe you should make it your mission to educate the rest of the world on the proper use of the phrase -- there are a lot of people using the term who are ignoring your instructions. ;-)

[SBGK]

Let's be clear on this - for period count of 4, with the TXRX spdif driver there is no point setting the buffer time above 100000 as at 44.1 this gives a period time of 23219 which is is already limited by the buffer size.

no point unless you want a more analogue type sound backed up by empirical testing by about 10 people.

oh well, there must be some other explanation for the difference in sound caused by setting large buffers.

Maybe one day we'll get to understand.

Have you tried larger buffer sizes ?

[Triode]

no point unless you want a more analogue type sound backed up by empirical testing by about 10 people.

oh well, there must be some other explanation for the difference in sound caused by setting large buffers.

Maybe one day we'll get to understand.

Have you tried larger buffer sizes ?

Please read the code (all of which is public) - unless you make a change which impacts the active buffer size all you are doing is creating an expectation of a change - there can be no difference to the actual operation if the parameters you change does not impact the active values. I'm afraid you are hitting expectation bias here...

[magiccarpetride]

That sounds great if you say it fast.

However, in the real world, when I hear someone's "revealing system" after they've told me that's what I'm going to hear, there is nothing predictable about what emerges.

Perhaps you've been blessed to be surrounded by people who use the phrase in a manner consistent with your definition, but that certainly hasn't been my experience. Maybe you should make it your mission to educate the rest of the world on the proper use of the phrase -- there are a lot of people using the term who are ignoring your instructions. ;-)

You have a point, it's been, like anything else, heavily abused. Be that as it may, the fact remains that if you want to 'reveal' the signal (or as much of it as possible), you need to lower the noise.

[Jake72]

You have a point, it's been, like anything else, heavily abused. Be that as it may, the fact remains that if you want to 'reveal' the signal (or as much of it as possible), you need to lower the noise.

With modern equipment such as DACs the signal to noise ratio is likely to be well over 100db which is huge. It would mean I think if the signal was 100db (a rock concert) the noise would be 1db (quieter than a pin dropping and indeed quieter than can be measured) when the ambient noise in a very quiet room is about 20db. In other words there is no way you can hear the noise generated by a resonably good 24 bit DAC or indeed the noise generated by a standard squeezebox touch. and they are all perfectly 'revealing' or 'transparent'.

[magiccarpetride]

With modern equipment such as DACs the signal to noise ratio is likely to be well over 100db which is huge. It would mean I think if the signal was 100db (a rock concert) the noise would be 1db (quieter than a pin dropping and indeed quieter than can be measured) when the ambient noise in a very quiet room is about 20db. In other words there is no way you can hear the noise generated by a resonably good 24 bit DAC or indeed the noise generated by a standard squeezebox touch. and they are all perfectly 'revealing' or 'transparent'.

I'm not buying your math here. If that were the case, then it would be literally impossible to detect any differences between various PSUs. The thing is that when an electrical audio component operates, it tends to interject certain random noise back into the electrical circuit. If your audio chain is not properly balanced, these tiny electrical noises can feed back and get magnified along the audio chain and then emerge at the other end (i.e. in your speakers) as interference. We've all heard that (the unwanted buzz and the hum), and we've all heard how great the music sounds once we manage to clear up that congestion, if even for a bit.

When we upgrade an audio component and go with a higher quality one, the benefits are mostly in the area of noise reduction. It takes careful engineering and a lot of know-how to be able to tame those pesky little interferences, which explains why is this hobby so bloody expensive.

[Jake72]

I'm not buying your math here. If that were the case, then it would be literally impossible to detect any differences between various PSUs. The thing is that when an electrical audio component operates, it tends to interject certain random noise back into the electrical circuit. If your audio chain is not properly balanced, these tiny electrical noises can feed back and get magnified along the audio chain and then emerge at the other end (i.e. in your speakers) as interference. We've all heard that (the unwanted buzz and the hum), and we've all heard how great the music sounds once we manage to clear up that congestion, if even for a bit.

When we upgrade an audio component and go with a higher quality one, the benefits are mostly in the area of noise reduction. It takes careful engineering and a lot of know-how to be able to tame those pesky little interferences, which explains why is this hobby so bloody expensive.

The massive S/N ratios indicate just how miniscule those little interferences are these days. Buzz, hum and hiss I would associate with analogue sources such as tape or vinyl or with something that is actually faulty.

[Bytec]

The massive S/N ratios indicate just how miniscule those little interferences are these days. Buzz, hum and hiss I would associate with analogue sources such as tape or vinyl or with something that is actually faulty.

Totally agree.