Article: Reality Quest: Power and Digital Audio with the Sean Jacobs DC4 and Sound Application PGI TT-7 (Part 1 of 2)

[Archimago]

Interesting read. Glad you liked the results...

 

Just to state the obvious. I think it would be really nice to have a quick look at the noise level coming out of the DAVE with its stock SMPS vs. the others.

 

The reason I bring this up is that in the past I have found at least one example where the power supply can clearly affect noise level and it was in fact a linear power supply that was problematic for the DAC. Sometimes the noise is ultrasonic so you won't necessarily hear the issue but nonetheless is being fed to the amp and speakers. Furthermore, you might find situations where as the power supply warms up, the noise will fluctuate over time.

 

Considering the price of the DAVE, effort to open it up, warranty exceptions, etc... it would be nice to go that extra mile and ensure there are no issues with measurements.

[Archimago]

4 hours ago, ray-dude said:

 

I wish all of us that can't (currently) do measurements lived close enough to @Archimago so we could take our toys over and cross map measurements to subjective experience! (over an appropriate beverage (or three) of course)

 

 

 

Absolutely. Wish you were closer! You've got some great gear there @ray-dude!

 

The DAVE's output would be an interesting one to examine because of the very clean, strong "ideal" filter it implements. Changes to things like dynamic range, noise floor and variations in harmonic distortion could show quite clearly with a DAC like that. Would be a nice documentation of the effect that the power supply has.