This is a review and detailed measurements of the "high-end" Datasat LS10 Audio/Video Processor (AVP). It is on kind loan from a member. The LS10 is a shrunk version of the Datasat RS20i and came out in 2015. I think it costs US $12,500 but I am not certain. Read some place that Dirac EQ was thousands of dollars more (?). Anyway, it is not cheap.
The LS10 looks a bit industrial but fine otherwise:
The high resolution display is touch sensitive which is very nice. What is not very nice is that you can NOT configure the unit with it! Yes, you read that right. Whether using the remote or the touchscreen, all you can do is operate the unit. No programming of the device whether it is bass management, EQ, input names, etc. To configure it you must use a VNC (remote desktop) software over its Ethernet connection. There is a web interface but it is extremely primitive and only lets you change the volume and such.
The VNC interface is not very attractive either:
And kind of non-intuitive. Trying to type in levels did not work for example. I had to use keyboard arrows to change them. There is also a 1 second delay before menus open which is a bit annoying. Still, it does the job.
The back connection shows departure from all legacy connections:
You basically have all of these parallel channels to use as you wish. Dirac Live is provided for automatic EQ. Thank heavens as I can't imagine sitting there hand optimizing some 15 channels of audio!
While I did not test it, I believe this is the first AV product I have seen that can act like a USB DAC.
It is assumed that this processor is sold by a system integrator which does all the setup for you.
Overall reliability was not bad although I found that the S/PDIF input would lose lock at 48 kHz and would not work until I switched to HDMI and then back. Also, there is something rattling in there. Likely a screw or something.
Datasat LS10 AVP DAC Measurements
As usual we feed the device a 1 kHz digital signal and with no processing see what it can do out of its analog output:
Above is with S/PDIF. Same performance exists with HDMI:
One channel has worse second harmonic distortion which knocks the SINAD (figure of distortion+noise) enough to give the LS10 second place ranking:
Not bad or broken but certainly nothing to brag about for a product in this price range.
One thing that is different about this product is that gain management is exposed to the user to some extent. Ordinary AV products mess with how much analog amplification exists combined with digital headroom in order to perform their channel mixing (e.g. routing sub output to mains if you don't have a sub or converting multichannel into stereo). The LS10 is not the same. Changing the unit from 2 channel mode (used above) to 5.1 caused the output to shoot up to 6 volts. Also, at times, turning up the volume made no difference at all in the output. It would get louder up to certain level and then stay there.
One nice thing about the LS10 is that it acts like a Pro audio interface in being able to pump out a lot of voltage. Indeed, max was over 16 volts! This should let you squeeze the best performance out of a few amps that measure best with high inputs (Benchmark AHB2, Hypex amps without buffer boards, etc.). To see if there is a trade off here, let's sweep the input digitally and measure the output at full volume (2 channel mode):
Signal to noise ratio is a bit disappointing:
We are almost 20 dB shy of state-of-the-art desktop DACs in $600 to $1000 price range.
IMD vs level shows mass-market AV product peformance:
Linearity is good in one channel but not the other:
Jitter is fine:
Only one DAC filter is provided and it is the typical chip filter which is steep (good) but a bit lazy (not so good):
Good attenuation though and typical of what we get in just about every desktop DAC.
Conclusions
This Datasat LS10 review shows what we have known for a while: that the AV industry walked away from great technical performance long time ago. What we have here is what we get in mass market AVRs. Going so much higher in price gets you XLR output, more channels perhaps and more professional looking product.
Nothing is broken here per se so I can't give the LS10 the lowest score. But I am not going to recommend it either.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Went to the garden today to see what is left to harvest and noticed the our Dahlia plants are trying their best to still flower although the cold and rain has essentially doomed them. Picked a few to surprise my wife:
Appreciate any kind donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The LS10 looks a bit industrial but fine otherwise:
The high resolution display is touch sensitive which is very nice. What is not very nice is that you can NOT configure the unit with it! Yes, you read that right. Whether using the remote or the touchscreen, all you can do is operate the unit. No programming of the device whether it is bass management, EQ, input names, etc. To configure it you must use a VNC (remote desktop) software over its Ethernet connection. There is a web interface but it is extremely primitive and only lets you change the volume and such.
The VNC interface is not very attractive either:
And kind of non-intuitive. Trying to type in levels did not work for example. I had to use keyboard arrows to change them. There is also a 1 second delay before menus open which is a bit annoying. Still, it does the job.
The back connection shows departure from all legacy connections:
You basically have all of these parallel channels to use as you wish. Dirac Live is provided for automatic EQ. Thank heavens as I can't imagine sitting there hand optimizing some 15 channels of audio!
While I did not test it, I believe this is the first AV product I have seen that can act like a USB DAC.
It is assumed that this processor is sold by a system integrator which does all the setup for you.
Overall reliability was not bad although I found that the S/PDIF input would lose lock at 48 kHz and would not work until I switched to HDMI and then back. Also, there is something rattling in there. Likely a screw or something.
Datasat LS10 AVP DAC Measurements
As usual we feed the device a 1 kHz digital signal and with no processing see what it can do out of its analog output:
Above is with S/PDIF. Same performance exists with HDMI:
One channel has worse second harmonic distortion which knocks the SINAD (figure of distortion+noise) enough to give the LS10 second place ranking:
Not bad or broken but certainly nothing to brag about for a product in this price range.
One thing that is different about this product is that gain management is exposed to the user to some extent. Ordinary AV products mess with how much analog amplification exists combined with digital headroom in order to perform their channel mixing (e.g. routing sub output to mains if you don't have a sub or converting multichannel into stereo). The LS10 is not the same. Changing the unit from 2 channel mode (used above) to 5.1 caused the output to shoot up to 6 volts. Also, at times, turning up the volume made no difference at all in the output. It would get louder up to certain level and then stay there.
One nice thing about the LS10 is that it acts like a Pro audio interface in being able to pump out a lot of voltage. Indeed, max was over 16 volts! This should let you squeeze the best performance out of a few amps that measure best with high inputs (Benchmark AHB2, Hypex amps without buffer boards, etc.). To see if there is a trade off here, let's sweep the input digitally and measure the output at full volume (2 channel mode):
Signal to noise ratio is a bit disappointing:
We are almost 20 dB shy of state-of-the-art desktop DACs in $600 to $1000 price range.
IMD vs level shows mass-market AV product peformance:
Linearity is good in one channel but not the other:
Jitter is fine:
Only one DAC filter is provided and it is the typical chip filter which is steep (good) but a bit lazy (not so good):
Good attenuation though and typical of what we get in just about every desktop DAC.
Conclusions
This Datasat LS10 review shows what we have known for a while: that the AV industry walked away from great technical performance long time ago. What we have here is what we get in mass market AVRs. Going so much higher in price gets you XLR output, more channels perhaps and more professional looking product.
Nothing is broken here per se so I can't give the LS10 the lowest score. But I am not going to recommend it either.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Went to the garden today to see what is left to harvest and noticed the our Dahlia plants are trying their best to still flower although the cold and rain has essentially doomed them. Picked a few to surprise my wife:
Appreciate any kind donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/