[Sean_MR]

I am not an audio engineer and may not understand this fully, and this is from many years ago, but my understanding is that greater bit depth translates to greater dynamic range. With digital volume control the signals dynamic range is compressed in the digital domain (effectively reducing the bit depth of the source) and brings the audible information closer to the noise floor - when you run this signal to an amplifier after the conversion the noise is also amplified and can become audible.

This is why, as I understand it, that doing digital volume control (back in the day) could degrade the sound and that you should do volume control with high quality analog gain after the signal was converted, and why you should feed your pre-amp/amp at full line level.

One way around this, is for the dac to upsamole the incoming signal to a higher bit rate before applying digital volume control and converting the signal to analog - this helps preserve the separation of the sound we want (music) from the noise we don't want - when processing in the digital domain.

But if you are not doing digital volume control - the extra bits don't matter (at least for this reason) because 16 bits provides plenty of dynamic range to cover what we can hear, while keeping the noise below audible levels.

If I've got this wrong, someone with more knowledge and understanding please clarify!

So is that why people usually give the rule of thumb of maxing out your digital source, then making adjustments on your amp? Or is that unrelated?

 

[jkpenrose]

So is that why people usually give the rule of thumb of maxing out your digital source, then making adjustments on your amp? Or is that unrelated?

Thats where I first came across that... But that was way back when we still bought CD players!

Now that dsp chips are more powerful, you can adjust volume in the digital domain without issue

 

[jkpenrose]

Wow this sparked a lot more than I was intending. But I did watch the video, and wow it was fascinating! It honestly blew my mind it was really interesting to me to learn that adding bits doesn’t actually increase detail or resolution. I definitely learned something new thanks for the link!

Definitely sent me down the research path instead of the other things I was supposed to do today

Came across a very interesting interview with Rob Watts - designer of chord products... And why he believes in oversampling.

He talks a lot about our sensitivity to timing and transients in music and how there is much we don't understand about how our brains perceive/translate audio signals... He says we are much more sensitive to those cues than to frequency or bit depth - for things like imaging, soundstage, etc.

Also said measurement is important because we can hear what we measure BUT that we can't measure everything that we hear - so measurements only tell you if something sounds bad, not if it sounds good

 

[XERO1]

Wow this sparked a lot more than I was intending. But I did watch the video, and wow it was fascinating! It honestly blew my mind it was really interesting to me to learn that adding bits doesn’t actually increase detail or resolution. I definitely learned something new thanks for the link!

Knowing Is Half The Battle!

 

[XERO1]

Also said measurement is important because we can hear what we measure BUT that we can't measure everything that we hear - so measurements only tell you if something sounds bad, not if it sounds good

Brilliantlly put!

 

[XERO1]

So is that why people usually give the rule of thumb of maxing out your digital source, then making adjustments on your amp? Or is that unrelated?

That is one of the reasons, but the main reason you should do it is because you always want to have your DAC outputing at it's highest voltage level so that you maximize the DAC's SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio).

This can be controlled by your DAC (if it has a digital volume control), or your PC (via it's digial volume control), or both.

Doing this insures that the noisefloor coming from the DAC (that is created by it's analog circuits) will be as low as it possibly can be.

 

[rsnblmn]

 

[jaboki]

i feel like they push it back 3 weeks every update. =/

 

[jkpenrose]

i feel like they push it back 3 weeks every update. =/

I'm waiting to order one too. Currently have a vali-2 and have had great experience with Schiit as a company.

I'm sure they are frustrated too! LOL

 

[rsnblmn]

I'm waiting to order one too. Currently have a vali-2 and have had great experience with Schiit as a company.

I'm sure they are frustrated too! LOL

Yup. While I totally get that circumstances are outside their control and "it is what it is", I would prefer there was just a bit more transparency with this delay. Maybe I'm spoiled since Schiit is normally crazily transparent about almost everything else, and in this case maybe they're just being overly optimistic and keep missing their dates, but I'd rather them under-promise and over-deliver on the delay rather than keep getting my hopes up. Just tell us straight up if it'll be another two months, or whatever the worst case scenario is. Then, if I get a surprise shipping notice, I'll be overjoyed instead of disappointed repeatedly. (Maybe that is what they're doing with the June 30 update? Fingers crossed...)

 

[ThanatosVI]

Yup. While I totally get that circumstances are outside their control and "it is what it is", I would prefer there was just a bit more transparency with this delay. Maybe I'm spoiled since Schiit is normally crazily transparent about almost everything else, and in this case maybe they're just being overly optimistic and keep missing their dates, but I'd rather them under-promise and over-deliver on the delay rather than keep getting my hopes up. Just tell us straight up if it'll be another two months, or whatever the worst case scenario is. Then, if I get a surprise shipping notice, I'll be overjoyed instead of disappointed repeatedly. (Maybe that is what they're doing with the June 30 update? Fingers crossed...)

My guess is, that they thenselves don't know, maybe their supplier is giving those dates and cant deliver on time.

It's ugly for all involved, however Schiit products are usually worth the wait.

 

[aGloveSupreme]

They really should be communicating this with their customers via email letting them know why there are further delays. Right now it’s anybody’s guess if the preorders up to this point are shipping tomorrow and if new orders will ship June 30th or of all orders will ship June 30th. No clue.

 

[XERO1]

I hate it when this kinda schiit happens!

In order to keep my sanity, I just look at it like the product has been put on indefinite hold until further notice. That way, I can mentally get off the ship date rollercoaster.

 

[sfoclt]

Jesus

 

[theveterans]

You guys should fly to LA now since Schiitr has them in-stock last time I checked last Saturday 6/6/20