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Post by AudioHTIT on Dec 2, 2015 21:21:09 GMT -5
0.2 dB variations can still be audible according to the famous book "Psychoacoustics: Facts and Models" by Hugo Fastl and Eberhard Zwicker.  It looks like you're right there, if you listen to pure tones approaching 100 dB it shows a JND around 0.2 (he specifically mentioned 1000Hz but said other pure tone frequencies worked as well). However as soon as the signal became more complex the JND increased, sometimes well over 1 dB with white noise. Reading the material it seems the test conditions were pretty difficult to construct. |
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Post by yves on Dec 3, 2015 1:58:06 GMT -5
0.2 dB variations can still be audible according to the famous book "Psychoacoustics: Facts and Models" by Hugo Fastl and Eberhard Zwicker. It looks like you're right there, if you listen to pure tones approaching 100 dB it shows a JND around 0.2 (he specifically mentioned 1000Hz but said other pure tone frequencies worked as well). However as soon as the signal became more complex the JND increased, sometimes well over 1 dB with white noise. Reading the material it seems the test conditions were pretty difficult to construct. Yeah, it's a worst case scenario so in practice 0.5 dB steps for a volume control seems reasonable to me. |
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Post by Charles Peterson on Feb 6, 2018 16:48:42 GMT -5
I was surprised and very disappointed that Emotiva removed the 0.25dB resolution from the DC-1.
It was partly because of that feature on my first DC-1 that I ordered 3 more DC-1's. I ordered the first two for my triamplification system, believing the 0.25dB resolution would let me adjust the subwoofers, midrange, and super tweeters exactly as needed. I am using a Behringer 2496 DEQ to implement 4th order Linkwitz Riley crossover for each "way." The DEQ is purely digital input and output, with the AES output being fed to the 3 DC-1's. Sadly the DEQ only has 0.5dB adjustability also. My preference would be for 0.1dB resolution, but 0.25 is close enough. Behringer includes 0.1dB adjustability in the DCX 2496, intended for use as a crossover, and which I used for many years, but the DCX lacks digital output and only has mediocre analog quality.
And then I ordered my 4th DC-1 to build my longstanding dream...a "perfect" amplifier ABX system. Each amplifier is fed by a DAC, with their relative levels matched by the volume controls on the DC-1's. The general advice for blind testing is 0.1dB level matching. However, if you have a volume control with 0.25dB resolution, that actually means you can adjust levels to within 0.125dB, which I decided is close enough to 0.1dB.
For many years and still I lusted for Levinson preamps like 38/38S/380/380S/32 which feature 0.1dB resolution. Hardly anyone else has it. 0.5dB resolution seems "mid fi" to me.
As it is, I'm happy that I have at least one DC-1 with 0.25dB resolution, that's all I need for the ABX. Now I'm thinking of either trading with someone else who has the older DC-1 and wants the newer, or modifying the DC-1's back to 0.25 resolution. I've been looking at Muses spec sheets.
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Post by garbulky on Feb 7, 2018 19:22:44 GMT -5
Well having owned this for a long time now, 0.25 db adjustments are a PITA. 1 db should be the norm. DC-1 has an acceleration function which helps this out. But I think if they switched from 0.25 db to 0.5 I welcome it. However for niche applications like the above and studio applications this may crop up to being an issue.
Now as for a perfect ABX system - I actually did what you did. But, every preamp that I've heard so far colors the sound in some way so there's no way to make it perfect. However I thought the Dc-1 did a really solid job here.
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