wacomme
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 11, 2022
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What's the purpose of auto-mute in dacs? I ask because my SMSL DO100 certainly has it, and it's a PITA. Granted, it seems to work fine under normal listening conditions, though I have heard other people having issues with silence in certain tracks, but to conduct REW measurements and resulting EQ filters, the auto-mute function rears its ugly head. Here's my story . . .
It's just a huge bother when conducting REW measurements with the right channel; apparently, auto-mute looks at the L channel and if there's no sound it shuts down. Thankfully, turning the dac off and back on for each R channel REW measurement seems to create an accurate and trustworthy frequency response measurement for the R channel. Also, if I use Speaker Cal for the pink noise rather than Full Range, I can push continuous sound out of the R monitor and thus be able to synchronize the loudness of each monitor (adjusting gain on back of monitors). If I switch to Full Range pink noise, I get at most a second or two of sound from the R monitor (L channel and monitor are NOT affected), and I must turn off and back on the dac to get any additional sound from the R channel.
Now, I don't think I have any R channel issues, per se (I've already replaced the DO100 thinking the dac had R channel problems), but the auto-mute seems to serve no useful purpose. Why have it? It also makes me wonder if I should return the DO100 altogether and buy a dac that does NOT have an auto-mute function. What's the opinion on this matter? Is an auto-mute dac a device that should be avoided? If so, what dac is a suitable replacement? I need a dac with volume control and balanced connections.
It's just a huge bother when conducting REW measurements with the right channel; apparently, auto-mute looks at the L channel and if there's no sound it shuts down. Thankfully, turning the dac off and back on for each R channel REW measurement seems to create an accurate and trustworthy frequency response measurement for the R channel. Also, if I use Speaker Cal for the pink noise rather than Full Range, I can push continuous sound out of the R monitor and thus be able to synchronize the loudness of each monitor (adjusting gain on back of monitors). If I switch to Full Range pink noise, I get at most a second or two of sound from the R monitor (L channel and monitor are NOT affected), and I must turn off and back on the dac to get any additional sound from the R channel.
Now, I don't think I have any R channel issues, per se (I've already replaced the DO100 thinking the dac had R channel problems), but the auto-mute seems to serve no useful purpose. Why have it? It also makes me wonder if I should return the DO100 altogether and buy a dac that does NOT have an auto-mute function. What's the opinion on this matter? Is an auto-mute dac a device that should be avoided? If so, what dac is a suitable replacement? I need a dac with volume control and balanced connections.