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Front
of AD 96 (click for larger image)
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Converters…
What goes in must come out:
When working with digital audio, your system's analog-to-digital (A/D)
and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters will ultimately determine the fidelity
with which you can capture and playback audio.
Many studio owners want/need world-class performance… but can't justify
spending $3000 for an Apogee PSX-100 ($1500 per channel of input/output).
So what's
a typical studio owner to do?
Inexpensive
24Bit A/D D/A converters are improving all the time, and many newer audio
interfaces (ie: MIDI Man's Delta 1010) provide very respectable performance
(109dB dynamic range). For many purposes, this is more than adequate.
However, if you wish to attain top performance (117+dB dynamic range),
you'll have to go with an outboard set of A/D D/A converters.
For the past
couple of months, I've been using a set of outboard Swissonic AD96 and
DA96 converters… and wanted to share the experience.
Yodel ley
eee Who?
Swissonic is a company based in Uznach Switzerland… with Swissonic
America being the US branch.
Many folks are probably not familiar with the Swissonic name… but
are actually using Swissonic designed/built units.
When you look
at several of the Swissonic products (ie: AD24 and DA24), you'll probably
notice that they look vaguely familiar. This isn't coincidence. Swissonic
is the company that actually manufactured A/D D/A converters sold under
the Sonorus name.
AD96
The AD96 is
a half-rack 4-channel 24Bit A/D converter with the following features:
- True 24Bit A/D
conversion
- 7th order, tri-level
delta-sigma converter architecture
- 4 balanced XLR
inputs
- LED meters for
input monitoring (w/multiple modes)
- Low-noise L/C
PLL system
- BNC Wordclock
I/O (1x, 2x, Superclock)
- Conversion between
Wordclock formats
- 44.1kHz, 48kHz,
88.2kHz, and 96kHz sample rates
- Lightpipe optical
output (4-channels; switchable between 1-4 and 5-8)
- S/MUX and B/MUX
format options
- Noise-shaped Dither
(switchable between 16, 18, and 20Bits)
- Two AES/EBU outputs
(XLR)
Specs:
- Dynamic Range:
118dB A-weighted, 113dB unweighted
- THD + Noise (20Hz
to 20kHz): -100dB @ -1dBFS input, -95dB @ -20dBFS input, -53dB @ -60dBFS
input
- THD: 0.001% @
-1dBFS input
Using the AD96…
The AD96's user
interface is about a simple as it gets. On the left side of the unit,
you'll find four LED peak-meters (each with 16 lights). To the right of
the meters, there are push-buttons to select the various (listed) options
for Meters, Clock Source, Wordclock Output, Output Resolution, Sample
Rate, and ADAT Format. There's also a button to Calibrate the converters.
As you push each button (cycling through its options), the currently selected
option is shown via a green LED.
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Meters:
|
| -60…0dB |
From -60dB to -21dB… the meters provide 5dB steps, from -21dB
to 0dB… the meters provide 3dB steps. |
| -15…0dB |
The
first green LED (@-60dB) is a 'channel active' indicator, from -15dB
to 0dB… the meters provide 1dB steps. |
| -25…-10dB |
The
first green LED (@-60dB) is a 'channel active' indicator, from -25dB
to -10dB… the meters provide 1dB steps, the Red LED is an 'over'
indicator. |
| Overloads |
The
first green LED (@-60dB) is a 'channel active' indicator, the Red
LED is an 'over' indicator, the middle LEDs show the number of 'overs'
using a logarithmic scale. |
| Clock
Source: |
| Internal
|
The
AD96 will use its internal clock. |
| WCL
x1 |
The
AD96 will lock to the clock signal at the BNC Worldclock input. The
clock signal must be between 40-50kHz. If the AD-96 is set for 88/96kHz
operation, the Wordclock frequency will be multiplied by two before
deriving its sample clock. |
| WCL
x2 |
The
AD96 will lock to the clock signal at the BNC Worldclock input. The
clock signal must be between 80-100kHz. If the AD-96 is set for 44/48kHz
operation, the Wordclock frequency will be divided by two before deriving
its sample clock. |
| Superclock |
The
AD96 will lock to the clock signal at the BNC Worldclock input. The
clock signal must be 256 times the desired sample rate. |
| WCL
Output: |
| x1 |
The
AD96 will output a 40-50kHz clock signal via the BNC Worldclock output.
If the AD96 is set for 88/96kHz operation, the sample rate will be
divided by two to derive the output. |
| x2 |
The
AD96 will output an 80-100kHz clock signal via the BNC Worldclock
output. If the AD96 is set for 44/48kHz operation, the sample rate
will be multiplied by two to derive the output. |
| Superclock |
The
AD96 will output a clock signal (via the BNC Wordclock output) that's
256 times the internal sample rate. |
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