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question about SNR and THD

A

Anarchist420

Diamond Member
Why do home audio receivers use [lower quality] DACs with a much higher SNR and THD compared to high-end sound cards?

Also why does HK say the 3490 is 95db SNR when the DAC it uses is 106db SNR?
 
Why do home audio receivers use [lower quality] DACs with a much higher SNR and THD compared to high-end sound cards?
Click to expand...

What is a DAC that's lower quality yet has higher SNR and THD? Care to give any examples?

You can't compare SNR of receivers to sound cards. While SNR is the measure of the signal to noise ratio of the lowest-gain-level (which is not saying a whole lot since nobody listens at the minimum volume attenuation), the receiver will be putting out a signal that has a higher current to voltage ratio, so is not directly comparable.

The SNR's they give you is from the final line-level output--lots of things contribute to noise beyond just a DAC.
 
Last edited:
I think you mistyped what you were meaning, so I'm going on that...

Basically, you get what you pay for. Most of the noise in receivers comes from the amplifier circuit and having all of those signal components inside one compact chassis. Even if the converters do 106dB S to N ratio, the amp and other circuits limit the ability of the whole product.
 
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