notsodeadlizard
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- Feb 18, 2023
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I was leafing through the old issues of audioXpress yesterday.
The issues of the magazine was 2003, strictly 20 years ago.
It was very interesting
Behringer DSP8024 review, for example (with a lot of measurements of course).
It was an interesting device in a solid case with beautiful buttons, a graphical indicator and XLR sockets for $230.
The positioning of this device at the time is not so interesting.
But the most interesting things were inside.
Analog inputs are balanced and based on the still very good NJM4580 dual op amp with the beautiful 0.0005% THD at 5V output signal.
Buffered (and amplified, one analog channel could be used for microphone) analog signal goes to the 2-channel 24-bit 48KHz ADC (AK5392).
Digitized signals are processed in realtime by 2 DSPs (each for own channel) and the resulted stream is returned to analog domain by the 2 24-bit DACs (CS4390).
All this was controlled by an 8-bit microcontroller, because in such devices such a controller is sufficient even today.
The device was used as a 31-band graphic digital equalizer, for the room equalization and so on.
The total system's THD was and is completely acceptable, about 0.004% in a worst case.
And it's difficult to find bad reviews about this device (I see some people still use it, this device is very "hackable").
So, it was the saturation point.
After that, you can see non-radical improvements here and there, every 3 dB below the then achieved -90 dB in an inexpensive and very complex "analog-digital-analog" device are given increasingly at a higher price.
And some very old solutions generally "pop up" in the most unexpected places.
Check out the reference design of the newest and best DAC from AK (a pair of AK4499EX / AK4191).
There are very nice high-speed voltage references used which are not a traditional Vref sources at all but the high speed variation of a very smart Superregulator (opamp is powered by voltage, which it also stabilizes). But all those Superregulators were announced as a kind of snake oil
In general, everything has become boring for a long time and it is not surprising that people want at least a little magic
The issues of the magazine was 2003, strictly 20 years ago.
It was very interesting
Behringer DSP8024 review, for example (with a lot of measurements of course).
It was an interesting device in a solid case with beautiful buttons, a graphical indicator and XLR sockets for $230.
The positioning of this device at the time is not so interesting.
But the most interesting things were inside.
Analog inputs are balanced and based on the still very good NJM4580 dual op amp with the beautiful 0.0005% THD at 5V output signal.
Buffered (and amplified, one analog channel could be used for microphone) analog signal goes to the 2-channel 24-bit 48KHz ADC (AK5392).
Digitized signals are processed in realtime by 2 DSPs (each for own channel) and the resulted stream is returned to analog domain by the 2 24-bit DACs (CS4390).
All this was controlled by an 8-bit microcontroller, because in such devices such a controller is sufficient even today.
The device was used as a 31-band graphic digital equalizer, for the room equalization and so on.
The total system's THD was and is completely acceptable, about 0.004% in a worst case.
And it's difficult to find bad reviews about this device (I see some people still use it, this device is very "hackable").
So, it was the saturation point.
After that, you can see non-radical improvements here and there, every 3 dB below the then achieved -90 dB in an inexpensive and very complex "analog-digital-analog" device are given increasingly at a higher price.
And some very old solutions generally "pop up" in the most unexpected places.
Check out the reference design of the newest and best DAC from AK (a pair of AK4499EX / AK4191).
There are very nice high-speed voltage references used which are not a traditional Vref sources at all but the high speed variation of a very smart Superregulator (opamp is powered by voltage, which it also stabilizes). But all those Superregulators were announced as a kind of snake oil
In general, everything has become boring for a long time and it is not surprising that people want at least a little magic