"The digital interface"

[PHC1]

This is a multi part video from the "The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel" on youtube. I enjoy his reviews and topics on digital as well as analog audio.

Perhaps this 3 part topic will be new info to some of our members, for others it may be a good refresher. In any case, I suggest you watch all 3 parts and hopefully enjoy as I did.


Connecting your DAC #1: the interfaces. An introduction to the digital interfaces.

https://youtu.be/AWM8fOCCVW4

[PHC1]

Connecting your DAC #2 how digital can go wrong.

https://youtu.be/grzoqEb2KMk

[PHC1]

Improving digital audio signals.


https://youtu.be/N66aDb7LZaM

[oddeophile]

Awesome info. Thank you. [emoji106][emoji106]

[Yamaki]

Thank you for posting those links, Serge.

I enjoyed hearing about the technical differences and background of digital files.

[PHC1]

Glad you guys found the topic interesting. I like Hans's channel.

[Shrinky Smurf]

Thank you for the post, PHC1! Super informative vids. I’ve actually really enjoyed all your posts.
Best,
Shrinky

[Puma Cat]

One of the things I found interesting about Hans' video is he explains that, due to thermal noise, it's pretty much impossible to get more than 20 bits of S/N with digital reproduction.

Along these lines, Schiit's Yggdrasil DAC, which uses 20-bit Analog Devices AD5791BRUZ mil-spec DAC chips was "panned" by Stereophile because the chipset was not "24-bit".

My guess is that Mike Moffat also knew what Hans knows, which is why he doesn't worry about Stereophile's "not really a 24-bit DAC" perspective on Yggdrasil (or Gumby, for that matter).

As it turns out, acc. to Hans, having a 24-bit chip doesn't matter from any real-world, practical perspective; what matters is the quality of the conversion and it's accuracy, which Yggdrasil does really, really well.

[W9TR]

You get roughly 6 dB of dynamic range for every bit you add. 20 bits is then about 120 dB of dynamic range.

A lot of electronics today will have trouble hitting this number.

Given that even the best rooms have noise floors of 40 dBa and you can start to see why 20 bits starts to be a very practical limit.

24 bits would be 144 dB dynamic range. Not going to happen realistically in a home environment, even taking into account the fact you can hear stuff below the broadband noise floor.

This is an over simplification of what is going on, but should give you some perspective.

Tom

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by W9TR

You get roughly 6 dB of dynamic range for every bit you add. 20 bits is then about 120 dB of dynamic range.

A lot of electronics today will have trouble hitting this number.

Given that even the best rooms have noise floors of 40 dBa and you can start to see why 20 bits starts to be a very practical limit.

24 bits would be 144 dB dynamic range. Not going to happen realistically in a home environment, even taking into account the fact you can hear stuff below the broadband noise floor.

This is an over simplification of what is going on, but should give you some perspective.

Tom

You're correct, Tom, and these were the points that Hans was making in part, too.