Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghitulescu
If you understand the DAC as the device and not as the chip..
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Yep
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghitulescu
Few people can go beyond -70dB
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Agree. There was some study which has shown that most people couldn't spot the difference already at 12-13 bits (70-80 dB)
The limiting factors are noises of the environment.
People buy expensive soundcards but they hardly can get more than 80 dB because PC fan's noise. It's ridiculous. Today even silent notebooks with good on-board HD audio chip have actually much better quality. Or one should go for silent and treated room with appropriate hardware.
Also there were some successful blind tests where the difference between 16 and 24 bits was spoted.
But it's not for everyone. The conditions of the test were ideal (deep silence, high concentration etc.)
So ~18-20 bits still makes sense. More than 20 bits doesn't have any advantage for playback.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...ic=80294&st=25
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...opic=81467&hl=