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Denafrips Terminator DAC measurements

Discussion in 'Source Measurements' started by purr1n, May 12, 2019.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    purr1n, May 12, 2019
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  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    SE outputs. Higher second harmonic and AC mains. All inaudible. A little bit less "hairs" or "cilia". A great thing if you are a measurement extremist.

    1kHz 0dbFS SE
    upload_2019-5-12_11-16-29.png

    1kHz -90dbFS SE
    upload_2019-5-12_11-17-5.png
     
    purr1n, May 12, 2019
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  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    1kHz THD+N from -100dbFS to 0dbFS
    upload_2019-5-12_11-21-9.png

    Good results. It looks like as the 1kHz signal gets higher than 7db, the THD starts go up a bit relative to lower levels. It's not much, and nothing to worry about. SINAD is about 95db.

    Here is how it stacks up in this meaningless SINAD / top-speed graph.
    DAC THD+N / SINAD for a 1kHz signal
    upload_2019-5-12_11-26-5.png

    It should be noted that SINAD is -100db with a -6dbFS signal, so its really better than the above meaningless plot might suggest with real musical content, or at least content which isn't brickwalled. Measurements are complex.

    Moral of the story: only morons attempt to distill measurements into a single plot to demonstrate overall performance.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2019
    purr1n, May 12, 2019
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  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Here are THD sweeps from 20Hz to 20kHz at different output levels.

    -90dbFS
    upload_2019-5-12_11-33-31.png

    -60dbFS
    upload_2019-5-12_11-34-14.png
     
    purr1n, May 12, 2019
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  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Measurements are very good, actually extremely good for a discrete R2R discrete job. Denafrip's balls-to-the walls brute force approach is effective here. SINAD is close to sigma-delta chip + opamp designs.

    The FFTs show a pattern that implies R2R. Balanced outputs do what they do well (cancel out AC and some even harmonics). There is some cilia or hair at the noise floor, but only a measurement extremist would have an issue with this.

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...ically-incorrect-audio-blog.7261/#post-249242
     
    purr1n, May 12, 2019
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  6. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    While I still have hard time to associate your subjective evaluation with any of these results, it's quite interesting that there is a "spectrum" of measurements (measured in a consistent rig/way) clarity across discrete r2r dacs. And there observed a good negative correlation between product price and harmonic distortion degree. This relationship largely seems attributable to the degree of brute forcing -- which generally mean money put.
     
    Vtory, May 12, 2019
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