Discussion about actual instruments?

[Ropeburn]

Hello friends, I've been wondering why there seems to be no discussion about actual musical instruments (electronic ones) and their technical quality. I'm aware there's little point in measuring a synthesizers' distortion for example, because that's not a useful metric and hardly possible at all. But output noise? Input and output behaviour of samplers? Processing artifacts like in the Pioneer CDJ thread? Samplers are recorders and I'd find it interesting to see some measurements or even just discussions around it.

Or would it be too far from the focus on recording and reproduction in general here?

 

[AnalogSteph]

I guess musicians are a pragmatic bunch and make do with what they have if it can be made to perform well enough for their purposes.

My lowly Yamaha PSR-E323 keyboard via its headphone out is good for a dynamic range of about 88 dB if you have an input that can take its full ~2.5 Vrms output, or 86 dB if you are limited to 2 Vrms, or 80 dB at 1 Vrms obviously. The limiting factor is the speaker power amplifier being used, despite its gain already being reduced by 10 dB. I reckon the combo of AK4385EF DAC and BA4580 opamp on +5V ought to be good for something in the low 100s, assuming the SWL01 DSP actually bothers with 24-bit output.
Now this rather unexciting model may not be the #1 candidate for a line-out mod but it would help, and given that there already are test points for L and R signals at a 0 V DC level, it shouldn't be that hard. Expected (absolute) maximum output level would be +/-1.30 Vpp or 0.925 Vrms with 100 ohms of output impedance, a good match for something like an onboard line-in or an audio interface mic input. (Those using MIDI I/O would probably want to expend another 100 ohm resistor and 4.7 µF capacitor per channel and dual TRSs or a single Pentaconn for an impedance-balanced output.)