[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] More info on the intona

[foxesden]

Hi

Just spent the day measuring my DAC as I thought it was losing bass.

I was using rightmark, and only wanted to confirm whether the frequency
drop I was hearing could be measured - it could. But, I was surprised at
how bad the noise etc was. So I tried measuring my other main DAC April
Music Eximus; and this too didn't measure too well.

So I suspected my USB soundcard ESI U24XL wasn't too good; and bunged
the intona into the chain to see if it made a difference. Here are the
results



24128

This result was entirely repeatable.

I suspect that it is because the old ESI device which is quite old has a
ropey USB interface.

Jonathan


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[drmatt]

Can't read the text in your attachment, it seems to be 102 bytes in
size!


-Transcoded from Matt's brain by Tapatalk-



--
Hardware: 3x Touch, 1x Radio, 2x Receivers, 1 HP Microserver NAS with
Debian+LMS 7.9.0
Music: ~1300 CDs, as 450 GB of 16/44k FLACs. No less than 3x 24/44k
albums..
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[Archimago]

Post by foxesden
Hi
Just spent the day measuring my DAC as I thought it was losing bass.
I was using rightmark, and only wanted to confirm whether the frequency
drop I was hearing could be measured - it could. But, I was surprised at
how bad the noise etc was. So I tried measuring my other main DAC April
Music Eximus; and this too didn't measure too well.
So I suspected my USB soundcard ESI U24XL wasn't too good; and bunged
the intona into the chain to see if it made a difference. Here are the
results
24128
This result was entirely repeatable.
I suspect that it is because the old ESI device which is quite old has a
ropey USB interface.
Jonathan

Interesting... Wondering if you'd get better results with that ESI USB
ADC in 24-bit recording mode.

Looks like there's some noise there, but you mentioned bass loss issues.
Did you actually find frequency response differences?

Bottom line is that it looks like you need a better ADC than the U24XL
which I think is only 1/2 the price of the Intona USB isolator! The
other question is what computer / laptop are you connecting the ADC
to...



Archimago's Musings: (archimago.blogspot.com) A 'more objective'
audiophile blog.
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[foxesden]

Thanks for getting back.

Yes I realise the ESI is well out of date and only a basic USB
sound-card (The irony is that I used the ESI to transcribe much of my
vinyl); but I was learning how to do the settings in RightMark and
getting some dubious results with the onboard soundcard. I am not sure
how much I would want to spend on a better ADC, now that I have a feel
for what you have gone through with all that testing! I spent a day on
it, and could easily see my self getting more obsessive about trying out
new measurements.

It is tricky to do, as setting the output volume to the max seems to
overload the ADC and causes huge distortion figures, whereas have the
output to low and the noise looks terrible.

The PC is a 2016 desktop based on an ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6
Skylake ATX Motherboard (supposedly with an audiophile :o dac built in).
PSU is EVGA SuperNOVA 750W PC Power Supply - Gold.
Intel Skylake i5 CPU & Radeon Graphics Card both water cooled. SSD /
HDD. In a fractal design r5 case. Plus a number of fans.

I have not attempted any audio tweaks or other additions other than to
make it quiet.



I did manage to track down that there was a bass roll off on the Audio
Note Dac - which was about -3.5 db down @40hz.

I found that a twisted silver cable ameliorated this by 1 db. But all
other cables tandy gold (cheap), audioquest ruby (mid) and silver foil
(home made exotic) were pretty much identical. Within the limits of the
ADC - which we have established is mediocre.


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[Julf]

Post by foxesden
I suspect that it is because the old ESI device which is quite old has a
ropey USB interface.

I find it very strange that even stereo crosstalk would be affected.



"To try to judge the real from the false will always be hard. In this
fast-growing art of 'high fidelity' the quackery will bear a solid gilt
edge that will fool many people" - Paul W Klipsch, 1953
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