Okto DAC8 Stereo review and measurements-Stereophile

[firedog]

https://www.stereophile.com/content/okto-dac8-stereo-da-processor

By JA.

Very impressive review and measurements. Competitive with much more expensive DACs, per the review.

 

[Celentano]

 

[Celentano]

Ye, that is really impressive... That DAC cannot properly construct a sine wave and what is the point to have a good noise floor if it cannot do essential DAC properly

 

[somebodyelse]

View attachment 107722

You missed the caption which gives some context - this is a very low level output, and comparable to other good DACs fed that signal.

Fig.15 Okto dac8 Stereo, waveform of undithered 1kHz sinewave at –90.31dBFS, 24-bit data (left channel blue, right red).

 

[dkfan9]

Impressively low noise floor

 

[firedog]

Ye, that is really impressive... That DAC cannot properly construct a sine wave and what is the point to have a good noise floor if it cannot do essential DAC properly

Don't think you are understanding the graph.

 

[Harmonie]

Ye, that is really impressive... That DAC cannot properly construct a sine wave and what is the point to have a good noise floor if it cannot do essential DAC properly

I doubt that you can hear anything at -90db even with your ears closely against the speakers.
Even at -60db it would be a faint sound.
Compare to -99db = absolute silence.

 

[dkfan9]

I doubt that you can hear anything at -90db even with your ears closely against the speakers.
Even at -60db it would be a faint sound.
Compare to -99db = absolute silence.

? dB is a relative scale. -90dBFS can be made audible. If you have your system set up to movie reference level, -90dBFS is at 15dB SPL at the listening position--above 0dB SPL, the inaudible level. Whether it ends up audible at listening position in a room depends on many factors, but if listening position is 10 feet and you get about an inch from the speaker, that 15dB SPL becomes 55dB SPL. I think the more relevant counter to the misinformed criticism is to take a look at other DAC reviews at Stereophile and see that this is not bad performance.

 

[Harmonie]

? dB is a relative scale. -90dBFS can be made audible. If you have your system set up to movie reference level, -90dBFS is at 15dB SPL at the listening position--above 0dB SPL, the inaudible level. Whether it ends up audible at listening position in a room depends on many factors, but if listening position is 10 feet and you get about an inch from the speaker, that 15dB SPL becomes 55dB SPL. I think the more relevant counter to the misinformed criticism is to take a look at other DAC reviews at Stereophile and see that this is not bad performance.

? dB is a relative scale. -90dBFS can be made audible. If you have your system set up to movie reference level, -90dBFS is at 15dB SPL at the listening position--above 0dB SPL, the inaudible level. Whether it ends up audible at listening position in a room depends on many factors, but if listening position is 10 feet and you get about an inch from the speaker, that 15dB SPL becomes 55dB SPL. I think the more relevant counter to the misinformed criticism is to take a look at other DAC reviews at Stereophile and see that this is not bad performance.

Of course, I made a short cut avoiding a long post.
There are so many test cd's, Chesky and else.
The usual way is to hear at usual listening level and then get the same samples at -20db, -60db from that previous listening level.

My point was just to put in real perspective what a -90db would mean and not just on a graph.

 

[Chrispy]

May as well put the local one in here https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/okto-dac8-stereo-dac-review.14705/

 

[dkfan9]

Of course, I made a short cut avoiding a long post.
There are so many test cd's, Chesky and else.
The usual way is to hear at usual listening level and then get the same samples at -20db, -60db from that previous listening level.

My point was just to put in real perspective what a -90db would mean and not just on a graph.

Ok, understood.

 

[Vincentponcet]

? dB is a relative scale. -90dBFS can be made audible. If you have your system set up to movie reference level, -90dBFS is at 15dB SPL at the listening position--above 0dB SPL, the inaudible level. Whether it ends up audible at listening position in a room depends on many factors, but if listening position is 10 feet and you get about an inch from the speaker, that 15dB SPL becomes 55dB SPL. I think the more relevant counter to the misinformed criticism is to take a look at other DAC reviews at Stereophile and see that this is not bad performance.

If the signal is at -90dbFS, the distortions of that -90dbFS signal are significantly below, otherwise it would not even remotely looks like a sinusoid.
DAC8 Stereo measurements gives distortions at -135dbFS, so 45db below that -90dbFS signal.