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Measuring digital audio qualities of bit-perfect playback with Diffmaker’s correlation depth

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It’s been a challenge to measure digital audio’s qualities and most of the time audiophiles don’t know any measurement outside RMAA’s analog metrics and got failed evaluations as you can see below:

 

Fidelizer - RMAA Measurements

 

This was done through pure software environment using VB-Audio Virtual Cable to make sure no hardware’s error is involved. After lengthy research in pro audio’s communities, I found DiffMaker being used in this thread below.

 

Evaluating AD/DA loops by means of Audio Diffmaker – Gearslutz Pro Audio Community

 

DiffMaker was used to test for audible effects of

  • Changing interconnect cables (compensation for cable capacitance may be required)
  • Different types of basic components (resistors, capacitors, inductors)
  • Special power cords
  • Changing loudspeaker cables (cable inductance may need to be matched or compensated)
  • Treatments to audio CDs (pens, demagnetizers, lathes, dampers, coatings…)
  • Vibration control devices
  • EMI control devices
  • Paints and lacquers used on cables, etc.
  • Premium audio connectors
  • Devices said to modify electrons or their travel, such as certain treated “clocks”
  • Different kinds of operational amplifiers, transistors, or vacuum tubes
  • Different kinds of CD players
  • Changing between power amplifiers
  • General audio “tweaks” said to affect audio signals (rather than to affect the listener directly)
  • Anything else where the ability to change an audio signal is questioned

There’s interesting metric called ‘Correlated Null Depth’ that can detect most subtle changes as measurable data. Archimago refers to this metric as below if you’re following his measurement tests.

 

The higher this value, the more correlated the 2 samples are (ie. the “closer” they sound).

 

Now I hope you understand better about DiffMaker and correlation depth. Let’s proceed to the methodology part. After a few runs of Diffmaker’s tests for a few weeks, this was the method I used in final version.

1. Setup master file and audio playback/recording through digital domain. In this case, I’ll use VB-Audio Virtual Cable, foobar2000, and Audacity on Windows 10.
2. Prepare aligned master files with silence added. For basic demonstration, I’ll make 5 samples of aligned/before/after wav files with Audacity at 24/96 format (10ms latency).
3. Route bit-perfect recording from Virtual Cable’s master audio stream with Foobar2000’s WASAPI output to Audacity’s WASAPI input, export audio as before.wav
4. Use free version of Fidelizer at Purist user level with updated foobar2000 configuration from Fidelizer’s User Guide, record again, export audio as after.wav
5. Compare results using Audio DiffMaker with master file as reference.

Testing machine ran on AMD FX8350 with 8 cores 4.2GHz and 8MB cache for L2/L3. I also used high quality motherboard with 16GB RAM and Platinum grade PSU. Here’s the result from my experiment.

 

Perfected master

parameters: 0sec, 0.000dB (L),  0.000dB (R)..Corr Depth: 300.0 dB (L), 300.0 dB (R)

This is ideal result of exact comparison with 300.0 dB of correlation depth

 

Aligned master

parameters: -3.5sec, 0.000dB (L), 0.000dB (R)..Corr Depth: 175.6 dB (L), 174.0 dB (R)
parameters: -4.5sec, 0.000dB (L), 0.000dB (R)..Corr Depth: 168.5 dB (L), 168.6 dB (R)
parameters: -5.5sec, 0.000dB (L), 0.000dB (R)..Corr Depth: 167.4 dB (L), 167.5 dB (R)
parameters: -6.5sec, 0.000dB (L), 0.000dB (R)..Corr Depth: 166.3 dB (L), 167.0 dB (R)
parameters: -7.5sec, 0.000dB (L), 0.000dB (R)..Corr Depth: 172.5 dB (L), 176.1 dB (R)

Average: 0.000dB (0.000-0.000)..Corr Depth: 170.35 dB (166.3-176.1)
Median: 0.000dB..Corr Depth: 168.55 dB

Dropped to nearly 50% of perfect data but still above 150 dB. With 9.8 dB swing range, it’s safe to assume about 5% threshold for evaluation.

 

Before Fidelizer

parameters: -1.581sec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 90.6 dB (L), 91.5 dB (R)
parameters: -1.184sec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 87.2 dB (L), 87.3 dB (R)
parameters: -1.018sec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 88.1 dB (L), 88.1 dB (R)
parameters: -946.4msec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 88.3 dB (L), 86.3 dB (R)
parameters: -686.3msec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 90.2 dB (L), 87.6 dB (R)

Average: 0.001dB (0.001-0.001)..Corr Depth: 88.52 dB (86.3-91.5)
Median: 0.001dB..Corr Depth: 88.1 dB

Real world result arrived with quite narrowed range. It’s only  5.2 dB between min/max of correlation depth. At least it’s more reliable than aligned result.

 

After Fidelizer

parameters: -563.4msec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 104.0 dB (L), 95.9 dB (R)
parameters: -1.025sec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 93.5 dB (L), 94.0 dB (R)
parameters: -1.286sec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 87.2 dB (L), 87.3 dB (R)
parameters: -1.025sec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 88.1 dB (L), 88.2 dB (R)
parameters: -856.4msec, 0.001dB (L), 0.001dB (R)..Corr Depth: 90.4 dB (L), 87.6 dB (R)

Average: 0.001dB (0.001-0.001)..Corr Depth: 91.62 dB (87.2-104.0)
Median: 0.001dB..Corr Depth: 89.3 dB

It started great with over 100 dB but the rest seems to wear down over time a bit because I also opened Chrome to chat in Facebook while during the experiment for daily usage tests. Strict tests for high quality result may lead to faking data abuse from people who can’t do a proper job.

With Fidelizer’s optimizations, we detected 3.1 dB increment of average and 12.5 db increment of maximum correlation depth with general improvements on other metrics too. I shall conclude that there’s measurable improvement with bit-perfect playback in digital audio.

You can also try running performing this test on your own and adjust DiffMaker configuration to show different kinds of data without rounding error or with other standards. Have fun measuring audio software optimizations with DiffMaker!

Regards,
Keetakawee

My JCAT USB Card impressions

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JCAT USB Card

 

I got this card from Marcin after he heard the news about building music server. The card arrived few days ago and I have my chance to listen to JCAT USB Card now. Let me warn you beforehand that I’m not reviewer so I’ll just say what I think about this card.

First, let’s see about the build quality. It’s very neat and solid card. I don’t like seeing an audiophile card being bloated with filters or mods that goes beyond its scale. JCAT USB Card is done right for commercial products. Some people may think it’s too expensive from its plain looks but chipsets and parts are chosen from high grade and PCB is done with good quality. There’s jumpers for power supply and filter. Good, I don’t like filter and I don’t have 2.1mm PSU to feed right now so I’ll use power supply from Seasonic Platinum PSU. It’s considered one of better PSUs for computers.

Next, let’s see how it sounds. I’m surprised. It’s like you’re listening to MP3 and then switch to FLAC. I used to hear ups and downs with other audiophile USB cards probably due to its massive filters. But JCAT USB Card make things much more evident than before. Headroom is increased with fuller dynamics and micro-detail. The music is much more alive with liquidity that I didn’t expect any USB Card to be able to pull this off.

Now let’s see how filters work. For the sake of trying, I’ll switch back and see how it turns out. The reason I don’t like filter because it’ll make the music sounds less live with compressed sound. I want fuller sound, live sound, and reveal everything as long as it’s clean enough. But JCAT USB Card’s filter changed my opinion about filter. It still has issues with compressed sound but in less significant manners. However, it’s really freaking cleaner while it retains most of music elements just fine. Look that DEEP AND TIGHT BASS. So deep, so tight, yet so smooth. I can’t believe I’m hearing this from USB Card listening to YouTube music. I think they can easily make USB filter product to sell separately just fine.

I normally don’t make a big impressions on products but this JCAT USB card is one of the best product I’ve heard from JPLAY. As expected coming from a guy who actually listen to music with real highend sources. There’s certain hits and misses that entry and mid-level products won’t understand but he delivered it finely at the price that is worthy for people who can afford. If you have budget and want the best things, JCAT USB Card will surely deliver it for you. It doesn’t look really stand out but it’s worth trying to get to the top of the hills.

Will DSD upsampling become a trend in 2016?

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Since last year, Roon users start to adopt HQPlayer and use its powerful DSD upsampling algorithm. There’s also cheaper solutions from other software that offers DSD upsampling too so audiophiles can get the feel of what DSD is like if played from their favorite tracks.

In this year, some big companies are starting to adopt DSD upsampling into their flagship products too. The most recent I’ve heard is Emm Labs releasing DA2 with DSD1024 upsampling and Audirvana promises to bring DSD upsampling into next updates as well.

I also was a an upsampling lover and have a few runs with DSD upsampling from Esoteric and dCS gears. While I loved the smoothness of vinyl-like transients from upsampling, I also felt I missed something from originals at the same time too. That didn’t happen with original SACD playback though.

There used to be a fad about DSD upsampling in last decade. Will DSD upsaming become popular again in this year? Will it encourage producers to bring more DSD files into the market?

Fidelizer Pro configuration with Roon 1.2 update

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After Roon 1.2 was launched for a while, some customers asked me about configuration they should set with Roon software. There’re Roon, Roon Server, and Roon Bridge software that can be installed in Windows with Fidelizer. Let’s see how each Roon’s software works with Fidelizer.

Roon – Main software that acts like media player software with cutting-edge UI. If you play music from network such as Tidal or NAS, I recommend “Network Player” audio profile. Otherwise, I recommend “Audio Player” for playing local music in computer.

Roon Server – Library server that allows music to be accessed from other devices through streaming. I recommend “Streamer” audio profile as the optimal choice for library server machine. If you use Roon Server as headless music server with Roon Remote, please configure as Roon instead.

Roon Bridge – This will run on background turning any Windows PC into Roon Ready device for streaming. I recommend “Network Render” audio profile for most suitable configuration of Roon ready device.

Let me wrap up again about Fidelizer Pro’s audio profile for each Roon software:

Roon – Network Player / Audio Player
Roon Server – Streamer / Network Player / Audio Player
Roon Bridge – Network Render

Seeing how Roon Bridge works, I can see a lot Roon ready products coming in years ahead. 🙂

Why does external USB interface sounds better than internal USB interface?

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Thinking logically, internal USB interface should have lesser chain of connection, shorter I2S connection to DAC without encapsulation on AES/SPDIF and stuff. My friend conduct some listening tests with Eximus DP1 and Stello U3. We found that using Stello U3 as external interface to AES/Coaxial input sounds better than internal USB interface. Both U3 and DP’s internal USB audio should have about the same quality. They even share the same driver and firmware.

After further tests with USB isolator and noise filter on tested computer machine, we found they minimized the difference between internal and external USB interfaces significantly. We could say that the reason why internal USB interface sounds worse is because DAC itself gets pollution from direct contact with computer audio source. By using external USB interface, DAC itself receives signal from encapsulated stream from USB interface box isolating pollution from USB connection.

However, it’s unavoidable for DSD to be played from direct USB connection. I think it’s important to reduce the pollution in computer audio source or suppress its effects with isolator or noise filter with optimal implementation.