How to interpret AVR measurement graphs?

[beagleman]

Very true what you are saying about the noise part. I always wonder why my AVR-X4400H is so much quieter than the Marantz AV8801 it replaced. Amir's measurements explained it. Not that I was hearing the hiss and hum when watching a movie or even music when I was using the Marantz, but knowing the noise was audible during a quiet passage with volume approaching 0, or even -10 would bother me.

With the ASR measurements now, I have the option to steer clear of audible distortions and/or noise if and when I am shopping for AVR or AVP again.

Again, not sure I get your post. With volume WAY up to "0db", or even -10db quiet passages are ALWAYS dominated by the noise of the recording itself.
When I pause ANY recording on very quiet passages, the noise TOTALLY vanishes. Meaning it was Baked into the recording, not the AVR......
How can you differentiate the recordings "Noise" versus what is produced by the AVR??

 

[peng]

Again, not sure I get your post. With volume WAY up to "0db", or even -10db quiet passages are ALWAYS dominated by the noise of the recording itself.
When I pause ANY recording on very quiet passages, the noise TOTALLY vanishes. Meaning it was Baked into the recording, not the AVR......
How can you differentiate the recordings "Noise" versus what is produced by the AVR??

I agree with you on this, but I thought I made it clear by saying "Not that I was hearing the hiss and hum when watching a movie or ............... but knowing the noise was audible during a quiet passage with volume approaching 0, or even -10 would bother me."

That's if the noise of the recording is loud enough, many vinyl albums for sure as an example but a) there may be some that isn't loud enough to dominate the combined noise produced by the electronic devices from say dac output to the preamp/avr/avp input to the power amp speaker outputs, b) if the recording's noise is the dominating one, the noise from the electronic devices in the audio signal chain will still be there, and I know it is audible that it won't be drowned out by the dominating one, it would be a case of electronics devices produced noise + noise of the recording. Again, just knowing that possibility would bother me, but that's just me. In that case it would like, I know I could not tell a difference between 80 dB SINAD and 90 dB SINAD on all else being equal basis, but I would not knowingly buy anything that measured lower than 90 dB SINAD. If I didn't know that my device has only 80 dB SINAD, then it would not bother me at all as long as I don't hear the distortions and noise, so in a way it may be better for me not to read all those ASR review, but I am a very curious (on most things in science especially engineering) person.

 

[beagleman]

I agree with you on this, but I thought I made it clear by saying "Not that I was hearing the hiss and hum when watching a movie or ............... but knowing the noise was audible during a quiet passage with volume approaching 0, or even -10 would bother me."

That's if the noise of the recording is loud enough, many vinyl albums for sure as an example but a) there may be some that isn't loud enough to dominate the combined noise produced by the electronic devices from say dac output to the preamp/avr/avp input to the power amp speaker outputs, b) if the recording's noise is the dominating one, the noise from the electronic devices in the audio signal chain will still be there, and I know it is audible that it won't be drowned out by the dominating one, it would be a case of electronics devices produced noise + noise of the recording. Again, just knowing that possibility would bother me, but that's just me. In that case it would like, I know I could not tell a difference between 80 dB SINAD and 90 dB SINAD on all else being equal basis, but I would not knowingly buy anything that measured lower than 90 dB SINAD. If I didn't know that my device has only 80 dB SINAD, then it would not bother me at all as long as I don't hear the distortions and noise, so in a way it may be better for me not to read all those ASR review, but I am a very curious (on most things in science especially engineering) person.

Hey, just partially giving you a hard time!

FYI, I used to be far more worried about stuff like this, and in fact would actually "stress" over it, and every little imperfection during playback.
Over the years, somehow convinced myself to not care nearly as much, and to enjoy music for the sake of music.
It made my life a lot more enjoyable and easier to take.

 

[peng]

Hey, just partially giving you a hard time!

I did not take it that way anyway. I do realize what I said in that post could be confusing even if I didn't intend it to be.