Following the raging success of the DAC/ADC test thread I thought we might try this with a cheap power-amp
I've recorded the same music samples as the other test through my DAC -> Power Amp -> Kensai Speakers and tapped off the speaker terminals to an ADC. We can compare these recordings with original CD file extractions.
I think this is a good test because the amp was driving real speakers (volume set about 90dB@1m each) and also because the amp (Alesis RA500) is mighty cheap at £190 but has good tech specs much like Serge's infamous Behringer amps that look similar. Popular thought would be that the recordings which passed through the £190 power amp would sound worse.
So have some fun and see if you can identify which files are the originals and which have been through a DAC, amp and ADC. Even better is to use the ABX application linked to see if you can identify the files against themselves.
Here are all the bits : http://www.audiosmile.com/forum/showthread.php?p=296231#post296231
[Note from site TL: AudioSmile own an educational music license so this material is exempt from pfm's no needledrop / no copyright rules given it was posted by the owner of that site]
I've recorded the same music samples as the other test through my DAC -> Power Amp -> Kensai Speakers and tapped off the speaker terminals to an ADC. We can compare these recordings with original CD file extractions.
I think this is a good test because the amp was driving real speakers (volume set about 90dB@1m each) and also because the amp (Alesis RA500) is mighty cheap at £190 but has good tech specs much like Serge's infamous Behringer amps that look similar. Popular thought would be that the recordings which passed through the £190 power amp would sound worse.
So have some fun and see if you can identify which files are the originals and which have been through a DAC, amp and ADC. Even better is to use the ABX application linked to see if you can identify the files against themselves.
Here are all the bits : http://www.audiosmile.com/forum/showthread.php?p=296231#post296231
[Note from site TL: AudioSmile own an educational music license so this material is exempt from pfm's no needledrop / no copyright rules given it was posted by the owner of that site]