re: Gain Structure for Home Theater: Getting the Most from Pro Audio Equipment in Your System
Your posts are very helpful, so don't consider my comments to be purely critical. I simply want to make it more likely that the general reader gets the point. In my area of greater interest, video calibration, we run into similar issues all the time. No professional nor professional monitor would ever be set up to crush whites nor blacks, and the concept of dynamic range within the capability of the device is well understood. When we cross over to consumer products that are set up from the factory to "clip" all the time, it becomes difficult to educate the masses in a clear manner. The issue of digital vs analog terminology and differences in their signal levels that I mentioned above is a constant example of the confusion that can occur.
I would suggest care in how you describe this. Talking about 1 bit of resolution in analog domain is like talking about IRE in digital video. That bit is not getting lost as resolution, but the dynamic range is diminished by the equivalent effective range. It is picking nits, but Wayne's goal here is to have a reference document that is factually correct and your posts are surely a big help in the constant process of revision and better targetting the discussion. It merits being correct and consistent in the application of terminology.
Remember that most of the people who will be making use of the document are not professionals but HT enthusiasts who need to better understand how to intgegrate consumer and pro equipment. The reason that this is all quite important is precisely that most do not understand gain and its relationship to SNR.That is not how a professional would do it though. :bigsmile: There should be zero clipping. Clipping takes precedence over DNR. He bumped up his levels to get the most DNR out of the signal processor, only to overdrive his -10 dBV amp inputs. He should have accepted the DNR loss through the DCX, or added another line converter after it to reverse the one before.
Those people wouldn't need to read this to know how to set things up.The point of structured gain is to never get to the distortion/clipping level, but also maximize DNR of the total system. You can miss the distortion/clipping level, and still have lowered your DNR.
Your posts are very helpful, so don't consider my comments to be purely critical. I simply want to make it more likely that the general reader gets the point. In my area of greater interest, video calibration, we run into similar issues all the time. No professional nor professional monitor would ever be set up to crush whites nor blacks, and the concept of dynamic range within the capability of the device is well understood. When we cross over to consumer products that are set up from the factory to "clip" all the time, it becomes difficult to educate the masses in a clear manner. The issue of digital vs analog terminology and differences in their signal levels that I mentioned above is a constant example of the confusion that can occur.
