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RE: You don't use listen tests to determine data errors

Not quite. The DAC is the primary place of attack to improve sound in digital audio playback.

The playback chain consisting of digital transport, DAC, and analog amplifiers is a system and its performance has to be evaluated as such. The chain reads the media and generates a string of bits that get clocked, converted to timed samples, converted to a continuous analog stream and then amplified. Reading the media and generating a stream of bits is a solved problem, but the process of doing so generates unwanted noise byproducts. These pollute the operation of downstream components and degrade the sound. There are three ways to fix this: have the transport produce less noise, isolate the transport from the sensitive components, and make the sensitive components less sensitive.

It seems pretty clear that the DAC, as the place where the noisy digital electronics meet the sensitive analog electronics,is the primary place where the noise battle needs to be fought. The second place where unwanted coupling comes in is through power wiring, and the third place is through cabling. It is possible to reduce the noise generated in the computer by "gold plating" the computer, but the economics seems to favor "gold plating" the DAC and amplifiers, especially since there will still be noise from other computing devices even if the transport has been made noiseless by putting it into a Faraday cage with Tempest grade red-black separation as used with military encryption devices.

That we are still arguing over physical machines and whether they can correctly read bits off of media, shows how hopeless the "high end" market is. I have avoided this marketplace for a long time and concentrated instead on equipment made to be sold to professional audio engineers, who are by and large more technically competent that audiophiles.

I hope it remains warm enough to enjoy your Italian car. It's too cold and damp now in Vermont for fun cars as we await the start of ski season.




Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar

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