Hello everybody,
I was searching for the same topic on web and luckily came across with this topic!
I'm interested in 8341 speakers. I want to run them with my Apollo X16 interface via AES-EBU connection. But, I'm a little bit confused about the dynamic range of the speakers. They have an onboard DA converter and you say they're AKM AK4621EF chips. AKM states they have 115 dB of DA dynamic range on their official website wheras my audio interface Apollo X16 has 133dB of dynamic range on it's DA. As I know, when the AES outputs are used, the DA chip of the audio interface is disabled, and the DA chip of the speaker becomes the main DA converter of the system , right? But with the numbers I've mentioned, it seems I'm sacrificing a lot of dynamic range -and headroom of course- ..
Do I draw up a new conspiracy theory, or is it a scientific true? I listened and liked the sound of this speakers but this issue confuse me a lot.
I'd be glad to hear your precious comments and contributions
Thanks
Whilst our ears have a dynamic range capacity of around 120dB (it is frequency dependant) in any real world situation, be it a recording of birdsong, music or a racing car the actual dynamic range of that sound will be a much smaller range, either near 0dB, near 75dB or near 120dB, and the person doung the recording will have set the gain control on their recorder to pick up this "slice" of the total dynamic range we can hear and place it in the best quality area of the recorder, ie just not clipping. The slice is likely to be little more than 70dB and almost always less.
When we play it back we have a volume control to set a comfortable level we like.
I would be prepared to bet £1 of my own money that few, if any, listener would listen to the birdsong at around 0-40dB at home and whilst many may want to listen to the music at near 75dB my £1 would be on the table again about anybody wanting a HiFi that could replay a racing car at 120dB, they would turn it down a bit (a lot).
This is just a way of saying don't worry about the chip dynamic range in conjunction with your volume control, it is more than enough for what you will play back, be it music, birdsong or racing cars.
The only exception is, in theory, perhaps film sound tracks which may have birdsong, music and racing cars all in it.