[sdiy] DACs on-board 12 vs external 16 vs 24 bit

[cheater00 .]

On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 3:20 PM, Tom Wiltshire <tom at electricdruid.net> wrote:
> Ouch! That's even worse than I'd feared.
>
> On 6 Nov 2013, at 12:49, cheater00 . <cheater00 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> That's 9 bits going to waste.

Just checked my numbers, and they do fit at 0 dBFS = 0 dBV which was
what I intended. Add 1.78 dB to the loudness of each bit for "pro
audio" levels (0 dBFS = 4 dBu = 1.78 dBV = 1.22 Vrms = 3.47 Vpp),
deduct 10 dB from the loudness of each bit for "consumer audio" levels
(0 dBFS = -10 dBFS = 0.31 Vrms = 0.89 Vpp). So in a synth with
consumer outputs you're really dealing with maybe 13 bits discernible,
and it's even worse in a polyphonic mix output, which adds IMD.
Naturally, the added bit depth might make the IMD sound different,
adding room for the argument of "the bit depth can be heard". However,
more bits are likely not going to be a productive addition, they'll
just make the system glitch in a different way.

Cheers,
D.