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Antelope Amari Measurements

Hi,
First review here, so don't hesitate to tell me if you see something odd.
I just bought an Antelope Amari for mastering work and Antelope's specs were not precise enough to my taste.
Since the APX555 was just there I did some measurements. I tried to be consistent with most measurements I've seen on the forum.

DAC:
Inputs: ASIO
Outputs: XLR
Fs: 44.1kHz

Monitor:

Here's the monitor with a 0dBFS input.

Frequency Response:
Here's a sweep at 0dBFS. Keep in mind the left axis scale has 2dB amplitude.

THD+N:
THD+N for a 0dB sweep (sorry for the timeout).

Linearity:

SNR & Dynamic Range:

0dBFS at 1kHz. SNR (left) at 133dB and AES 17 Dynamic Range at 132dB.

View attachment 344783 View attachment 344784

IMD Ratio:

This measure kept timing out this is the best I could get.

Sinad vs Measured Level:

That's an exceptional SNR measurement. It might be less than Antelope claim (which is often the case) but it's still higher than any SNR measurement of any DAC that I can find anywhere. The best domestic DACs usually get to 128 to 129 dB.

Edit: Does anyone know of any other DA converter with a higher SNR and DR? Even those that are running at 12V?
 
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That's an exceptional SNR measurement. It might be less than Antelope claim (which is often the case) but it's still higher than any SNR measurement of any DAC that I can find anywhere. The best domestic DACs usually get to 128 to 129 dB.

I think it is mostly related to the +24 dBu output level (12.28 V), at 4 V output level dynamic range is ~122 dB.

Michael
 
I don't think that's it, I think it's just a good interface. Dynamic range often plateaus at high output levels, so DR isn't necessarily proportional to output level. If it was, the DR at 4V would indeed be 9.7dB lower, or about 122dB.

Two things, though. In the first chart, the worst harmonic is about 120dB down, but the SINAD is 113dB, so that's just about noise dominated, even at 12.3V.
Next, looking at Sinad vs Measured Level, the SINAD actually drops slightly going from +14dBu to +24dBu.

This suggests that the DR will if anything be even higher at -10dBFS than at 0dBFS.

Now, Amir baselines his SINAD and DR measurements at 4V, but not everyone does. Sound on Sound test lots of interfaces, and their DR measurements are usually done at +20 or +24dBu. And the highest DR they've ever measured is the Apogee Symphony Interface at 129.0dB. The OP used a better Audio Precision analyser, but still, 132.3dB is a pretty epic result for a line level output.
 
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I don't think that's it, I think it's just a good interface. Dynamic range often plateaus at high output levels, so DR isn't necessarily proportional to output level. If it was, the DR at 4V would indeed be 9.7dB lower, or about 122dB.

Two things, though. In the first chart, the worst harmonic is about 120dB down, but the SINAD is 113dB, so that's just about noise dominated, even at 12.3V.
Next, looking at Sinad vs Measured Level, the SINAD actually drops slightly going from +14dBu to +24dBu.

This suggests that the DR will if anything be even higher at -10dBFS than at 0dBFS.

I agree it is a good interface.

The dynamic range measurement is performed by measuring noise at -60 dBFS input level and then comparing that noise to an output level. The measurement isn't actually being done at the higher output level. This should be obvious from the noise dominated dashboard measurement at 12.38 V which is nowhere close to 132 dB dynamic range due to rising noise at the higher output level.

At -10 dBFS, the dynamic range measurement will be by definition 10 dB lower than 0 dBFS (as you already noted for 4 V output level).

Now, Amir baselines his SINAD and DR measurements at 4V, but not everyone does. Sound on Sound test lots of interfaces, and their DR measurements are usually done at +20 or +24dBu. And the highest DR they've ever measured is the Apogee Symphony Interface at 129.0dB. The OP used a better Audio Precision analyser, but still, 132.3dB is a pretty epic result for a line level output.

Personally, I like residual noise as it tells you how much noise you have in absolute terms regardless of output level. Residual noise = 10^(-132/20) x 12.38 V = 3.11 uV. This is pretty good but not exceptional these days.

Of course, the advantage of +24 dBu output level is you can pair it with a low gain amplifier and achieve very good system noise performance.

However, if you aren't using the extra output level and are pairing it with say a Hypex NC252MP with 1.67 V input sensitivity, your system noise performance will be exactly the same as a lower output level DAC with worse dynamic range but the same residual noise.

Michael
 
If I understand correctly, all SNR and Dynamic range measurements in OP's measurements are un-weighted.

Amir is measuring with CCIR-2k at 4V, which pulls his measurements down several dBs (but CCIR-2k weighting is supposed to be more in line with what we hear).

Company is using A-weighting for their specs, I suppose, so we can probably compare the weighted value in the closing text to the specs.
 
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I think Amir is also using unweighted per the posts below. Of course it is possible something changed over time.




Michael
 
Hi,
First review here, so don't hesitate to tell me if you see something odd.
I just bought an Antelope Amari for mastering work and Antelope's specs were not precise enough to my taste.
Since the APX555 was just there I did some measurements. I tried to be consistent with most measurements I've seen on the forum.

View attachment 344775



DAC:
Inputs: ASIO
Outputs: XLR
Fs: 44.1kHz

Monitor:

Here's the monitor with a 0dBFS input.

View attachment 344777


Frequency Response:
Here's a sweep at 0dBFS. Keep in mind the left axis scale has 2dB amplitude.

View attachment 344780


THD+N:
THD+N for a 0dB sweep (sorry for the timeout).

View attachment 344781


Linearity:

View attachment 344782


SNR & Dynamic Range:
0dBFS at 1kHz. SNR (left) at 133dB and AES 17 Dynamic Range at 132dB.

View attachment 344783 View attachment 344784


IMD Ratio:

This measure kept timing out this is the best I could get.

View attachment 344785


Sinad vs Measured Level:

View attachment 344786




ADC:


Inputs: XLR
Outputs: ASIO
Fs: 192kHz


Monitor:
Monitor for a 23.9dBu input.

View attachment 344789


SNR & Dynamic Range:
Signal to Noise Ratio (left) from 0dBFS is 128dB. AES17 Dynamic Range is 124dB. Measured with a 20kHz bandwidth.

View attachment 344790 View attachment 344791


Frequency Response:

Taken at +23dBu.

View attachment 344792


IMD Ratio:

View attachment 344793



Headphone Amp:

Input: ASIO
Output: HP1 (Unbalanced then balanced)
Fs: 44.1kHz


Had to so measurements are in mono. So no channel matching etc sorry.
The headphone amp has a "membrane weight compensation" setting. The lower it is the louder is it's output.
All measurements were made with that setting in its minimum position of -4.6 Ohm.

Unbalanced SNR:
600 Ohm Load, from 0dBFS

View attachment 344794


Unbalanced THD+N Ratio vs Measured Power:
Firstly 300 Ohm resistive load


View attachment 344796


Then 32 Ohm resistive load

View attachment 344797


Balanced SNR:
600 Ohm resistive load, from 0dBFS

View attachment 344798

Balanced THD+N vs Measured Power:

Firstly 300 Ohm resistive load

View attachment 344799


Then 32 Ohm resistive load

View attachment 344800


Official Specs:
View attachment 344802

Closing Thoughts:
I'm curious of what you think about these.
The DAC A-Weighted SNR is 135.7dB so around 2dB off from the 138dB announced. I do like the distorsion measurement though.
I'm not sure what to think about the headphone amp. The unbalanced output seem to be better.
The ADC looks pretty good except that weird plateau in IMD starting at +5 dBu.
One selling point still remaining is the oven controlled clock as I couldn't set up the j-test.
I just got one for my mix room, and it sounds fine, measures great, etc..

I am shocked stunned and horrified to discover that there is no input level adjustment for the ADC.
You can select an operating level ranging from +12 to +24dBu but this *only* affects the output level of the DAC.

Why, Antelope, Why?
 
I have Antilope Audio Amari, I use it as a high-end DAC in my hi-fi system. I have a lot of DACs, but Amari is really the ultimate in audio quality. It sounds even better with a high-quality external clock. It sounds like a good symbiosis of DeltaSigma and R2R conversion technology. So it's definitely worth the money.
 
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