I did a quick forum search and didn't see much discussion of non-coherent distortion (NCD) and thought I'd bring it up.
At the headphone level, it's been shown that NCD is better at predicting preference than THD, IM, and Multitone
The Correlation Between Distortion Audibility and Listener Preference in Headphones
Steve Temme, Sean E. Olive, et al. (AES 2014)
And NCD also works at predicting preference for in-vehicle audio
Is there any easy way to measure differences in NCD for electronics? Or is still only meaningful for speakers since you can only get to those high levels of distortion with tube electronics?
@amirm, when this was discussed in 2018, you mentioned that we haven't even gotten to good THD/IMD in the industry so it was easier to focus on those established metrics before adding anything new to get the industry to work on getting the easier engineering done. Back in 2018, between the test gear and the electronics, Topping was only playing in the 10x dB SINAD range. While there is clearly opportunity for ongoing improvement from the mainstream, now that 120 dB SINAD DACs are common and value priced, how hard would it be to start doing some NCD testing?
@pkane, is this something that can be easily done in a future version of your software to expand hobbyist assessments of NCD?
At the headphone level, it's been shown that NCD is better at predicting preference than THD, IM, and Multitone
The Correlation Between Distortion Audibility and Listener Preference in Headphones
Steve Temme, Sean E. Olive, et al. (AES 2014)
And NCD also works at predicting preference for in-vehicle audio
Is there any easy way to measure differences in NCD for electronics? Or is still only meaningful for speakers since you can only get to those high levels of distortion with tube electronics?
@amirm, when this was discussed in 2018, you mentioned that we haven't even gotten to good THD/IMD in the industry so it was easier to focus on those established metrics before adding anything new to get the industry to work on getting the easier engineering done. Back in 2018, between the test gear and the electronics, Topping was only playing in the 10x dB SINAD range. While there is clearly opportunity for ongoing improvement from the mainstream, now that 120 dB SINAD DACs are common and value priced, how hard would it be to start doing some NCD testing?
@pkane, is this something that can be easily done in a future version of your software to expand hobbyist assessments of NCD?