So I want to digitise at least one of my Vinyl LPs (Reason unimportant).
I have two devices with an anlogue input.
Soundblaster omni 5.1 USB "sound card"
Lexicon alpha Audio Interface.
I wanted to work out which was best - I assumed it would be the lexicon since it is aimed at musicians. So I could have just tried digitising with each, and listen to the result, but I've been playing with REW for my first attempt at room correction...
Hmm - could I use REW to measure the two devices?
They both have analogue outputs and inputs, I decided to loop back on each, and see what gave the best measurement. Doing that, the Soundblaster gave dramatically better results. I'm sure the main reason is the lexicon has twiddly pots on the front that control the analogue gain. They don't seem that good, and I suspect the analogue circuits for that aren't the best. The pots are noisy also.
To confirm, I decided to measure the Soundblaster again, but then measure the input of the lexicon using the analogue output of the Soundblaster.
Here is the comparison - red is the Lexicon (THD+N 0.36%), and Green is the Soundblaster (THD+N 0.025% - 144 times or 40+dB better).
Output fedback to input was a 1kHz sinewave from REW generator, at -12DBFS.
I have two devices with an anlogue input.
Soundblaster omni 5.1 USB "sound card"
Lexicon alpha Audio Interface.
I wanted to work out which was best - I assumed it would be the lexicon since it is aimed at musicians. So I could have just tried digitising with each, and listen to the result, but I've been playing with REW for my first attempt at room correction...
Hmm - could I use REW to measure the two devices?
They both have analogue outputs and inputs, I decided to loop back on each, and see what gave the best measurement. Doing that, the Soundblaster gave dramatically better results. I'm sure the main reason is the lexicon has twiddly pots on the front that control the analogue gain. They don't seem that good, and I suspect the analogue circuits for that aren't the best. The pots are noisy also.
To confirm, I decided to measure the Soundblaster again, but then measure the input of the lexicon using the analogue output of the Soundblaster.
Here is the comparison - red is the Lexicon (THD+N 0.36%), and Green is the Soundblaster (THD+N 0.025% - 144 times or 40+dB better).
Output fedback to input was a 1kHz sinewave from REW generator, at -12DBFS.