I agree, but you usually end up looking at the software meters on a laptop. I forget who, but they made some interfaces with no meters at all for a time. All in software. It ends up being a better way.
@Julian Krause to the rescue once again:
That's 10mV for 0dBFS, which corresponds to +20dB above the reference gain in my plot above.
@Julian Krause to the rescue once again:
(Strictly speaking, this graph should be labeled input sensitivity, but what's a factor of -1 among friends?)
Looks like -40 dBV @ 0 dBFS ought to be fine. It would, however, require that ADC dynamic range be safely above 90 dB, so let's say at least 100 dB. There's a handful of interfaces that would not make the cut:
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I don't think there is a single interface that couldn't get its preamp noise floor at least 10 dB above ADC noise one way or another when juggling both of the above, but there will be some variation in how it is achieved. Hence why I suggested <max gain>, -40 dBV, -20 dBV.
Indeed. Strange that he states gain as a negative number.
Users will want to compare this figures to microphone sensitivity, which is usually given in mV/Pa (94 dB SPL).
-35dBu then ?
For EIN, representing low level performance, one figure should be enough.
His X axis is the level to reach 0dBFS.
What matters for the user is the range of input sensitivities.My comment above was NOT in the context of EIN. He seems to be saying that the higher the gain of a pre-amp the better it is, regardless of its performance. That makes no sense to me:
At least in terms of gain, if you use ribbons or the infamous SM7b it does help. The sensitivity of the Sm7b is 1.12 mv/Pa. Some old ribbons can be half that though most are between 1 and 2 mv/Pa. Also with ribbons you don't want those as close to what you are recording because they could be damaged.My comment above was NOT in the context of EIN. He seems to be saying that the higher the gain of a pre-amp the better it is, regardless of its performance. That makes no sense to me:
I remember a guy breaking the ribbon of a Beyer M500 by just shouting into it.
But, as I said, and as experience teaches, for each preamp, there is a gain above which increasing it brings no benefit.
Agreed, but part of the reason for testing is to ferret out units that don't work properly or well. So a preamp with not much gain, and a poor EIN at lower gain, that is what you want to find in testing. Some designs may not have enough gain to get you to the point of no benefit for something higher.
It probably should be named "input sensitivity" or "line-up level" or something like that. But non-technical people might not understand this term, that's why I have settled for "maximum gain of mic input". The whole graph is a tradeoff between understandability for casual consumers and technical people. The negative number gives you the input level in dBV that is needed to reach 0 dBFS with the gain set to the maximum. The more negative (smaller the signal) the more "gain" the device has. Technical people can directly see the line-up level of the maximum gain setting in the graph and consumers tend to completely ignore the minus sign and just see something like "65 dB gain". Not ideal but the best I could come up with for now and I'm happy to hear suggestions for improvement.
Correct, more "gain" does not necessarily mean better. In most cases gain isn't even an issue as you can simply amplify the recording in post. But there are scenarios where more gain is benefitial. E.g. if you use a low output dynamic mic like the Shure SM7B and you are live streaming you want to be able to get the mic to a decent level otherwise your stream would be too quiet. Yes, you could also boost the signal in programs like OBS but in reality, not that many people know that this is possible and they want to be able to get their signal as close to their desired output with the gain on their mic input. Also, if the gain is too low, you might have troubles monitoring the audio in because you would need to crank up your headphone volume but might still not be able to hear yourself properly. That's why a certain amount of gain is needed but I also agree, that anything above -50 dBV line-up at maximum gain setting, is rarely beneficial. That's why most interfaces on the list already have a "good" or "excellent" rating as there are only a few where you might have issues due to their low amount of gain.My comment above was NOT in the context of EIN. He seems to be saying that the higher the gain of a pre-amp the better it is, regardless of its performance. That makes no sense to me:
