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R2R vs Delta Sigma DACs - same results?

I simply do not want to watch that video nor do I have 36 minutes and 38 seconds to see if a random video has anything of interest or relevancy to me in any way, shape or form. You should condense the video in text for us and if people want to watch the video that's their choice.
Just check the linked PDF. Dont worry, its safe. Even if Chrome Browser somehow says the file would be "dangerous". Its an official document from Burr Brown.
 
Just check the linked PDF. Dont worry, its safe. Even if Chrome Browser somehow says the file would be "dangerous". Its an official document from Burr Brown.
I use Bitdefender and I have never had any issues for a very long amount of years due to using Bitdefender as my security suite. If Bitdefender says it's a bad link then it does not get opened. I do not trust a random entity on the internet to advise me that a link is safe, secure and that the link will not cause my need to reformat my PC drive, reinstall Win11 and then configure it all. That is not sensible and not going to happen.

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Burr Brown made a nice PDF, where they go into detail why Delta Sigma DACs are simply worse.
Also nice to see, how Delta Sigma DACs pretty much cheat to achieve their supposed superior SNR values.
This paper is quite outdated (Do 15 Aug 1996 10:33:08 UTC). At the time BB probably had no Delta Sigma Dacs in their portfolio. Nowadays almost all DACs in Audio are Delta Sigma, and of those which are not most measure much worse.
 
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Frank is generally a good dude and down to earth.

Here, he's comparing a Delta Sigma and R2R methods in theory and how they work in principle, and what their respective advantages and disadvantages are.

...using a Burr Brown PCM1710 as an example. When did that come out? 1994? At least that's what the datasheet I found is saying. Of course it's going to have -70dB noise floor and that's really bad compared to an R2R DAC that came out last thursday. The whole comparison article he's referencing is similarly outdated.

Eh... Not his finest hour.
 
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Exactly - they fail to meet the definition of faithful**. They are not included in the "vast majority" that do meet the definition.


**though to be fair, some of the more recent releases don't do so audibly.
What is the vast majority though? Are there a bunch of new R2R DAC's that are good? I just stumbled on the FiiO model today, but otherwise I am not really familiar with other new R2R DACs which are good.
 
If the DAC is reviewed here you can check the actual measurements.

Most DACs are better than human hearing and I don't worry about what's inside. The ONLY time I've heard a difference from a "DAC" it was a soundcard that made noise when the hard drive was accessed. I never heard anything wrong the DAC that was built-into my 1st CD player 40 years ago.
 
Frank is generally a good dude and down to earth.

Here, he's comparing a Delta Sigma and R2R methods in theory and how they work in principle, and what their respective advantages and disadvantages are.

...using a Burr Brown PCM1710 as an example. When did that come out? 1994? At least that's what the datasheet I found is saying. Of course it's going to have -70dB noise floor and that's really bad compared to an R2R DAC that came out last thursday. The whole comparison article he's referencing is similarly outdated.

Eh... Not his finest hour.
Howdy @Ropeburn. Just want to say that I am still focused on that garbage from me yesterday. I am still dialing myself in. Stupid idiotic stuff and that should never be something I do.
 
What is the vast majority though?
We're not talking about a vast majority of R2R dacs, but a vast majority of all DACs Most of which are not R2R, and most of which are also audibly transparent.
 
Howdy @Ropeburn. Just want to say that I am still focused on that garbage from me yesterday. I am still dialing myself in. Stupid idiotic stuff and that should never be something I do.
Don't worry about it, focus on getting away from the shit that caused it. Maybe read the poetic Edda... it helps lol
 
Except that we have found out that many R2R DAC's do not indeed accomplish this task without a high level of distortion.
Well, define "high" :) By -80dB or so, it's perceptually irrelevant for any reasonable music-listening purpose, and I'd say it becomes dubiously significant for realistic material well before that.

About the extent of meaningful sound "shaping" you ever actually see is high-frequency behavior of the filter.
 
If the DAC is reviewed here you can check the actual measurements.

Most DACs are better than human hearing and I don't worry about what's inside. The ONLY time I've heard a difference from a "DAC" it was a soundcard that made noise when the hard drive was accessed. I never heard anything wrong the DAC that was built-into my 1st CD player 40 years ago.
I had a terrible absurdly really bad CD player with DAC and such that popped, fizzled, sizzled, snapped, crackled and sounded without fail horrendous on about 1/2 of all the CDs. A Kinergetics KCD-40 CD player. The Phillips PCB and ICs where bypassed with a extra PCB mounted above the Philips PCB and Kinergetics used a assortment of ICs from various manufacturers and the result was the most terrible daily driver CD player to ever be put on Earth. I am a very appreciative Kinergetics owners of 3 great monster amps from them but the CD player was absolute garbage.
00O0O_3GkV2FFo2JSz_0CI0t2_1200x900.jpg


phoca_thumb_l_kcd-40-1.webp
 
I had a terrible absurdly really bad CD player with DAC and such that popped, fizzled, sizzled, snapped, crackled and sounded without fail horrendous on about 1/2 of all the CDs. A Kinergetics KCD-40 CD player. The Phillips PCB and ICs where bypassed with a extra PCB mounted above the Philips PCB and Kinergetics used a assortment of ICs from various manufacturers and the result was the most terrible daily driver CD player to ever be put on Earth. I am a very appreciative Kinergetics owners of 3 great monster amps from them but the CD player was absolute garbage.
00O0O_3GkV2FFo2JSz_0CI0t2_1200x900.jpg


phoca_thumb_l_kcd-40-1.webp
Aw yeah, gear porn. At the first glance, it's ticking all the boxes... of a Frankenmonster :D
 
Burr Brown made a nice PDF, where they go into detail why Delta Sigma DACs are simply worse.
Also nice to see, how Delta Sigma DACs pretty much cheat to achieve their supposed superior SNR values.
http://www.jitter.de/pdfextern/DesignSem5.pdf
That presentation is from about 1995 if memory serves, and some clutching at straws may have been involved even then. Multibit audio DAC evolution had pretty much hit a wall, and arguably BB's newer models with no external MSB adjustments post PCM63 even were a step backwards (PCM1702/1704 generally have some issues with low-level linearity), while delta-sigma converters still were rapidly evolving. By 1999 at the latest, the tables had turned, and the old model of separate digital filter + 2 discrete DAC chips (each costing a good chunk of money) was basically dead. With fully integrated delta-sigma converters being both better and cheaper, manufacturers voted with their feet as anyone would. I imagine the collapse of the multibit business had a lot to do with why BB was taken over by TI.

At the time BB probably had no Delta Sigma Dacs in their portfolio.
Actually, they did (e.g. PCM1710), and some of the first with multibit modulators too. Their performance was not necessarily bleeding edge but they did exist. By late 1997 their PCM1716 was even giving the CS4390 a pretty good run for its money while having double speed support. But with the arrival of 120 dB class quad speed DACs from AKM, Cirrus and AD, they were left pretty far behind, not catching back up until 2001 with their PCM1738. The business did continue decently, with lots of action in the consumer space, but the bleeding edge was defined by others.
 
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Aw yeah, gear porn. At the first glance, it's ticking all the boxes... of a Frankenmonster :D
I was heavily and deeply specialized into the repair of high end car audio at the time. It was all high end mechatronics cassette, DAT and mini-disc head units with monster car amps up to over 3 feet/1m long. I was designated the warranty service technician by a importer/wholesaler of Kinergetics that I had the Canada wide service agreement with for Coustic and Soundstream car audio amps, active crossovers etc and so I had all sorts of neat Kinergetics gear on my workbench too. I enjoyed the Kinergetics home amps very much and added that to my home audio system and the Kinergetics KCD-40 CD player was a off-spin from that. Otherwise that major mistake would never have occurred...LoL.
 
Well, define "high" :) By -80dB or so, it's perceptually irrelevant for any reasonable music-listening purpose, and I'd say it becomes dubiously significant for realistic material well before that.

About the extent of meaningful sound "shaping" you ever actually see is high-frequency behavior of the filter.
Nah, -80 is complete dogwater trash. I guess if you use 1940s speakers to listen to music, it probably doesn't matter. Otherwise your audio will always sound subpar.
 
What timestamp do I need to watch in the video? I can't listen to this strange text to speech dubbing. The PDF is also 40 pages
 
Where's the summary of the video for consideration? Let alone why this guy's opinion matters? That sort of thing, rather than just clicking on a link. I find the premise dubious at best in any case.
 
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