Recent content by AnalogSteph

Going by the measurements, you'd want to cross these as high as 150 or even 200 Hz, right where their midbass bump is, so crossing over to a sub properly could be bit tricky (not to mention the issue of placing that - the Kali IN-UNF system has a sub designed to go on the desk for a reason). The...

The Valhalla 2 appears to combine being an IEC Class I device with RCA inputs only, which (pardon the pun) is a bit schiit. The start-up pop I would assume to be the DAC's fault. I would run the Toslink directly into the Edifiers instead (whatever they have built-in is unlikely to be a...

iD4 MkII and SSL 2(+) would be good candidates for an SM7B, they've got very low EIN. Both have more gain to offer than the EVO 4, the SSL in particular would essentially make the Fethead redundant. The M2 has a healthy amount of gain with good EIN but apparently suffers from increased input...

I was just reminded of this album... used to play it a fair bit a few years back. (874 scrobbles... yep, seems about right.) A bunch of what I now consider classic songs on there... It's obviously much more indie than her hit and a half from back in the day. Sort of like Eisley's...

If it takes such a special test signal for this issue to appear, I would suspect it is related to something like analog rail switching (i.e. a Class G or even Class H output stage). This may be too slow to follow the signal accurately. Makes you wonder how it would do on (original mastering)...

I've been meaning to do this forever now. While the combo of Focusrite Forte and RMAA (both a bit flaky) was subjectively causing grey hair to sprout at an alarming rate at first, things ultimately went reasonably smoothly. Signal chain: Battery-powered Latitude E6330 (w/ Win10 22H2, Win 7/8.1...

This last one captures the atmosphere of some things from back in the day, I'm always reminded of this...

I would actually say that using MSIs is most important for devices that like to become notorious interrupt hogs otherwise, like GPUs and mass storage controllers. That's the kind of stuff that likes to mess up the sound.

Hmm, Bob Cordell's model lists an rbb' (RB) of 193 ohms, now that's not good if this sort of thing can happen. In that case even a trusty 3906 would be better. Looks like it could get to about -124.9 dBu unwtd 20-20k like that (with 100R series resistors), so about... -126 dBu A-wtd? Not much of...

Ironically, I wouldn't be surprised if that switch were to start behaving itself again after a bunch of exercise. On a side note, I would probably use "CD Direct" on just about anything but a CD player. The input amps tend to break a bit of a sweat if subjected to 2Vrms+ levels. It is perfect...

Sounds quite crackly, which suggests something more like bad solder joints or a failing semiconductor of sorts to me... can you pinpoint the issue to the tweeter or does it come out of the woofer as well? There are some classic trouble spots when it comes to cracked solder joints, like power...

+1 for realtime upsampling if you need it. The SoX resampler DSP for Foobar2000 for example is highly optimized and generates barely any load even on a 15-year-old CPU. I am using that to tame a crummy old IDT HDA sound chip in a Dell Latitude E6330 (I suspect either excessive periodic filter...

Note that these were done in 16/48, though I'm pretty sure a DAC using the (then $$$) UltraAnalog D20400A modules and PMD100 processor should be able to use at least 20 bits out of 24. The DAC modules themselves are specified with a dynamic range of 112 dB, 20-20k unweighted, as well as a THD+N...

Reverse-engineering continues: I may have gone slightly overboard with this one. After all of that, I couldn't be arsed to figure out where our mystery supply comes from, I suppose it's a low-noise something or other. EDIT: I have now confirmed it appears to be +6V. The PCBs appear to have...

Screwdriver time! I found +/-6.0 V analog rails generated by a Maxim-y looking chip (AK0 / 9C0). The P48V boost converter uses an NJM2374A PWM controller. 3 of 4 opamps are NJM2068, with an NJM4580 being responsible for the headphone output. Speaking of which, each channel gets a massive...