SINAD ... and cognitive dissonance (!)
A really good top notch speaker gets potentially down to 0.5% THD... aka SINAD no better than 46
Classic (and really good sounding) amps get THD to circa 0.05% aka SINAD no better than 66
Based on the speakers, the utility of SINAD as a measure is questionable!
So what, in fact, are we measuring?
Good engineering Hygiene?, Careful selection of components, and the use of SOTA components?
Manufacturing methods and choice... price based?
So you have an amp with a SINAD of 112db ... fantastic, wonderful design and engineering!
Then you run your preamp into it ... which achieves a SOTA SINAD of 120...
And your DAC source - again SOTA SINAD - 122
and we feed it into our audiophile speaker - say the highly regarded Revel F208.... SINAD equivalent based on THD @ 95db (roughly 5W as per the amp) - around 47 above 100Hz, and around 36 from 40Hz.
Above 200Hz the THD for the speakers are below measurable threshold (what is the measurement threshold in SINAD for speakers?)
So using SINAD on its own without some detail understanding of the underlying measurements that it is summarising, becomes a problematic issue, on a system wide perspective!
Aside from looking at the components from an academic sense of how good are they, relative to the SOTA, it is debatable how useful that raw figure is in terms of selecting components and setting up a cohesive synergistic system.
The THD and Noise data from the individual components are more useful in terms of determining what the end result would be - and shortlisting based on SINAD alone, is likely to exclude quite a large number of excellent components, which might in fact be superior in other areas/specifications, which might be critical to the ultimate outcome.
A device with a higher SINAD is definitely objectively "better" - but it also obfuscates the old adage that "Perfect is the enemy of Good"
(OK I will get off my soapbox....)
A really good top notch speaker gets potentially down to 0.5% THD... aka SINAD no better than 46
Classic (and really good sounding) amps get THD to circa 0.05% aka SINAD no better than 66
Based on the speakers, the utility of SINAD as a measure is questionable!
So what, in fact, are we measuring?
Good engineering Hygiene?, Careful selection of components, and the use of SOTA components?
Manufacturing methods and choice... price based?
So you have an amp with a SINAD of 112db ... fantastic, wonderful design and engineering!
Then you run your preamp into it ... which achieves a SOTA SINAD of 120...
And your DAC source - again SOTA SINAD - 122
and we feed it into our audiophile speaker - say the highly regarded Revel F208.... SINAD equivalent based on THD @ 95db (roughly 5W as per the amp) - around 47 above 100Hz, and around 36 from 40Hz.
Above 200Hz the THD for the speakers are below measurable threshold (what is the measurement threshold in SINAD for speakers?)
So using SINAD on its own without some detail understanding of the underlying measurements that it is summarising, becomes a problematic issue, on a system wide perspective!
Aside from looking at the components from an academic sense of how good are they, relative to the SOTA, it is debatable how useful that raw figure is in terms of selecting components and setting up a cohesive synergistic system.
The THD and Noise data from the individual components are more useful in terms of determining what the end result would be - and shortlisting based on SINAD alone, is likely to exclude quite a large number of excellent components, which might in fact be superior in other areas/specifications, which might be critical to the ultimate outcome.
A device with a higher SINAD is definitely objectively "better" - but it also obfuscates the old adage that "Perfect is the enemy of Good"
(OK I will get off my soapbox....)