USB Audio Interface for amateur SINAD measurements?

[Dougey_Jones]

Hi Everyone,

I'm sure this question has been answered/discussed elsewhere on ASR, but I'm failing at finding the right keywords to find the threads and information I'm looking for. A while back I saw a few mentions of fairly inexpensive chinese USB audio interfaces that had analog and balanced inputs/outputs as well as high SINAD (relatively) that would enable an amateur to conduct some bench testing at home as long as the component being tested didn't exceed the SINAD specs of the interface.

Can anybody point me in the right direction of these interfaces, and potentially any threads that discuss how to perform said testing?

Thank you!

 

[Blumlein 88]

What is your budget and what kinds of things do you want to measure?

REW is good free software for testing. A member pkane here has written another good free bit of testing software called Multitone.

Here is a thread about using it which will bring up some issues on gear used with it too. Long thread, probably best to skip to the last few pages as it has evolved considerably from the beginning.

Beta Test: Multitone Loopback Analyzer software

This is a software beta-test for IMD and THD aficionados with an intense desire for multi-tone audio testing :) The start of the documentation and the download website is here: https://distortaudio.org/multitone.html (for 64-bit Windows) Multi-tone Analyzer (MA) was more of an experiment than...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Here is where pkane took an RME device, which is one of the best you can get for this kind of testing (except microphones), and tested it.

RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE - Auto-measured with Multitone

I don't know if this post is about the extremely nice, new RME ADI 2/4 Pro SE interface or about the new automated measurement capability of the Multitone app :) Most of these measurements were done automatically using a Multitone test plan (I'll share in a separate post). This new feature...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Here is where to download the software.

Multitone - Loopback Analyzer for Audio | Distort documentation

Multitone is currently in beta test. Use at your own risk!

distortaudio.org

Another near state of the art device is the Cosmos ADC.
Here is where Amir measured one.

E1DA Cosmos ADCiso Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the E1DAC Cosmos ADCiso specialized Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). The grade "B" was kindly purchased by a member and costs US $179. As you see, you have dual balanced inputs. Back side has two USB-C inputs: one for power and one for computer...

www.audiosciencereview.com

If you search for E1DA Cosmos you'll come up with multiple threads. The fellow behind this is a member here as well.
Like this one:

E1DA Cosmos ADC

@IVX kindly sent me a sample of the new Cosmos ADC to try out. Here are my impressions of it so far. The Cosmos is housed in a compact metal case with rubber feet, USB Type C connector on one and dual XLR inputs on the other. Power is over USB only. Beside the USB connector is small LED that...

www.audiosciencereview.com

There is a scaler and buffer device for the Cosmos as well.

The Topping audio interface may be the one you were thinking of. Here is a review of it though I don't know of threads specifically about using it for measurements.

Topping E2x2 Audio Interface Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping Professional E2x2 audio interface (ADC, DAC, Headphone Amp). It was sent to me by the company and costs US $159. As the British would say, the E2x2 definitely "looks the part" as far as fitting in the general offering of interfaces in...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Dougey_Jones]

What is your budget and what kinds of things do you want to measure?

REW is good free software for testing. A member pkane here has written another good free bit of testing software called Multitone.

Here is a thread about using it which will bring up some issues on gear used with it too. Long thread, probably best to skip to the last few pages as it has evolved considerably from the beginning.

Beta Test: Multitone Loopback Analyzer software

This is a software beta-test for IMD and THD aficionados with an intense desire for multi-tone audio testing :) The start of the documentation and the download website is here: https://distortaudio.org/multitone.html (for 64-bit Windows) Multi-tone Analyzer (MA) was more of an experiment than...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Another near state of the art device is the Cosmos ADC.
Here is where Amir measured one.

E1DA Cosmos ADCiso Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the E1DAC Cosmos ADCiso specialized Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). The grade "B" was kindly purchased by a member and costs US $179. As you see, you have dual balanced inputs. Back side has two USB-C inputs: one for power and one for computer...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The Cosmos was definitely what I was thinking of. I'd really like to see what my Adcom GFP-750 can do in terms of SINAD in both passive and active modes. I've recently had it refreshed, including significant modifications and am very curious to see how it stacks up to more modern preamp's.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Stereophile reviewed it and measured it back in the day.

Adcom GFP-750 preamplifier Sidebar 3: Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements I agree with Wes Phillips about the sheer quality of the Adcom GFP-750's construction. One thing that had me confused was that the passive option is selected when the red LED above the switch is illuminated. For some reason, I assumed that the light being on meant that...

www.stereophile.com

It was based upon a Nelson Pass design emphasizing circuit simplicity. Results are generally fine, but Pass wasn't going for super low distortion. The decade older GFP-565 was designed by Walt Jung known for working with op-amps and measured a bit better on distortion.

Adcom GFP-565 preamplifier Measurements

Sidebar: Measurements The Adcom GFP-565 exhibited a flat frequency response measured from the CD input to Norm outputs, as shown in fig.1. RIAA accuracy was also very flat, deviating less than 0.1dB across the audible band (fig.2). Phono overload was a high 110mV at 1kHz. THD and noise, again...

www.stereophile.com

 

[johny_2000]

RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE or E1DA Cosmos ADCiso are currently the best for amateur use. Pros and Cons are always there. Post your measurement block diagram to get more accurate recommendations.

 

[Sokel]

Since you want to measure amps you have to include some big resistors (as a load,depending what you want to measure) to your rig and possibly some voltage dividers if the DUT's voltage exceeds the one allowed by the interface.