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I have no doubt the placebo effect will be strong with the Darkside Pro. Part of me wants it just to shamelessly have an extra box with the K13 and K9 Pro ESS setup. Someone will surely say the system was not "resolving" enough if there is no audible difference to level headed listeners.
Hello Reynaldo ! So, did you connect and use your "Darkside Pro" linear Power Supply Unit (PSU) to / with your FIIO K13 DAC ? And if so, any noticeable Sound Difference ?
It is a standardized unit of measurement used for indicating quality of signal output. The best DACs on the market are significantly more performant, pushing over 120 SINAD
It is a standardized unit of measurement used for indicating quality of signal output. The best DACs on the market are significantly more performant, pushing over 120 SINAD
Interesting; I've never / I don't recall this Measurement ever been mentioned in the various DAC Reviews on YouTube. Is this Measurement published by Manufacturers ? I was also interested in the "Gustard Audalytic DR70 R2R" DAC, what's the SINAD Measurement of this one ?
Interesting; I've never / I don't recall this Measurement ever been mentioned in the various DAC Reviews on YouTube. Is this Measurement published by Manufacturers ? I was also interested in the "Gustard Audalytic DR70 R2R" DAC, what's the SINAD Measurement of this one ?
Interesting; I've never / I don't recall this Measurement ever been mentioned in the various DAC Reviews on YouTube. Is this Measurement published by Manufacturers ? I was also interested in the "Gustard Audalytic DR70 R2R" DAC, what's the SINAD Measurement of this one ?
SINAD is in dB, which is a logarithmic scale. THD+N is in linear scale. To convert SINAD to linear scale, you do 10^(SINAD/20), so the full formula for converting SINAD to THD+N is:
From that it's easy to see how you get such "round" values for multiples of 20 dB shown by @JSmith above.
actually a well made R2R dac isn't bad, the holo spring 2 I am using have like 10x db SINAD, plus the fancy look and placebo effect, it's fine to enjoy the nostalgic but not really if the objective performance stepping into the audible region
So... if anyone is thinking about improving the PSU or using a fancy external ones, I did some measurements today:
AC IN -> XLR OUT. BACKGROUND NOISE WHILE PLAYING silence: -106db
DC IN [Super PSU] -> XLR OUT. BACKGROUND NOISE WHILE PLAYING silence: -127/8 db (The limit of my instrument).
No interesting difference. It was fun cause I built a PSU that is reaching -129db with 0 noise but... besides the 150Hz peak... no real improvement when normal music is playing.
Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps someone!
PS: I love the combination of this "broken" device and my HE1000SE. It tames them a little
And... a small clarification, PRE OUT measures better than Line Out if you don't take it to max volume. In my exact unit, -75.2db "SINAD" almost till 94 (the whole range) in both cases. The super PSU just adds a measurable, but not audible, (for me) noise floor improvement.
I measured many more parameters, distortion at all freqs, etc. Nothing relevant to report. Stick with the original PSU and enjoy your device unless you have uber-sensitive IEMs that you want to pair with it.
And... a small clarification, PRE OUT measures better than Line Out if you don't take it to max volume. In my exact unit, -75.2db "SINAD" almost till 94 (the whole range) in both cases. The super PSU just adds a measurable, but not audible, (for me) noise floor improvement.
I measured many more parameters, distortion at all freqs, etc. Nothing relevant to report. Stick with the original PSU and enjoy your device unless you have uber-sensitive IEMs that you want to pair with it.
All analog outputs in the back behave the same way; when you choose Pre out, the volume IC attenuates the signal. When you choose Line out mode, volume fixes to max.
