Did a $79 Behringer mastering interface just outperform the iFi DAC2?

[jabbr]

A) I'd like to know the resolution of the measurements / equip because they're not too far off ... certainly not bad for the behringer though

B) I'd like to see a close up measurement, just a few Hz around the carrier and with high res intervals (subHz) before declaring which one is "better"

[jabbr]

3 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

I'd like to know how important the small differences are to SQ, what the unit to unit variation is, and what's going on at 10 kHz with that little blip.

 

Like anything else you would measure and want to correlate one thing to the other, once you collected a set of measurements, then you could collect a set of SQ comparisons, or in whatever order, and then you could correlate. No different.

[jabbr]

7 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

unit to unit for each manf.

 

sounds like no one knows if -130 is adequate or not...

It's not the baseline that's so important rather the line width.

[jabbr]

On 7/4/2017 at 0:47 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

I like this comment because it works great for everyone. 

 

Whether you are 100% measurement based or 100% subjective or somewhere in the middle, you must understand that not all measurements really matter. One must listen to decide if a certain measurement matters to him. 

 

I've got the 404HD. It is a terrific deal at $99 particularly with the 4x microphone inputs. 

 

As a DAC it is very good. Doesn't blow away my iFi iDSD Micro regardless of measurements. Of course it accepts max PCM 192 input.

 

I think, probably, I prefer the SMSL iDEA at this pricepoint, although the Linux driver on the SMSL isn't accepting DSD input so perhaps there is room for it to improve...