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Sorry for the odd title - I can't think of a good articulation of this question.
I'm curious about the impact of cords and connectors between a DAC and a headphone amp on signal quality - specifically SINAD. I think what I am really wondering is if the cables cause more signal degradation than a circuit board trace in an integrated DAC/AMP.
In thinking about this, I think Amir's measurements take into account the use of a cable to connect a separate DAC and AMP, because he is using an external device to measure.
Could that mean that the SINAD of the DAC portion of an integrated DAC/AMP is being penalized, however slightly?
For example, Amir's SINAD measurement of the Topping DX5 is 122 db. Does that mean the internal SINAD between the DAC and AMP (i.e.: what the amp receives from the DAC) could actually be a bit higher? How much of an impact could something like this have? Would it be something like a fraction of 1 db, perhaps?
I know the differences are not meaningful or audible. I'm just curious from the technical standpoint
I'm curious about the impact of cords and connectors between a DAC and a headphone amp on signal quality - specifically SINAD. I think what I am really wondering is if the cables cause more signal degradation than a circuit board trace in an integrated DAC/AMP.
In thinking about this, I think Amir's measurements take into account the use of a cable to connect a separate DAC and AMP, because he is using an external device to measure.
Could that mean that the SINAD of the DAC portion of an integrated DAC/AMP is being penalized, however slightly?
For example, Amir's SINAD measurement of the Topping DX5 is 122 db. Does that mean the internal SINAD between the DAC and AMP (i.e.: what the amp receives from the DAC) could actually be a bit higher? How much of an impact could something like this have? Would it be something like a fraction of 1 db, perhaps?
I know the differences are not meaningful or audible. I'm just curious from the technical standpoint