Suggestion Box

[Craig Maier]

Use this thread to make suggestions for future improvements to the DCArt family of products.

Thanks,

Craig

[DJBohn]

Less digital artifacts & jitter?
I've been seeing a lot of hardware lately, specifically sound interfaces that employ their own, or allow for an external clocking function. Not just professional gear but consumer equipment as well. Their reason being the computer clock is doing too many different processing functions, besides trying to keep up with our musical demands that results in jitter & other digital artifacts.
I guess what I'm wondering is, can a software program such as DiamondCut products be designed to attach to an external clock for the same benefits? Just a thought.

[DJBohn]

Supersonic audibility?
I don't know about anyone else, but I have always wondered what is up in the supersonic region (above 18 to 20 kHz) in our LP's, whether it be actual instrument harmonics, squeaks in the air conditioner or bats in the belfry!
I just thought it would be cool to have a means to hear those sounds. Possibly a frequency divided by 4 button to audibly hear everything up to about 48kHz (96 kHz sampling limit) A frequency divided by 2 along with that could also give a different audible perspective of the frequencies just above 20 kHz. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to hear what's really up there.

[Craig Maier]

I do not believe that computer clock jitter is an issue with audio capture. Just because a computer clock drives many operations does not mean that it will have more jitter than any other crystal controlled system. Computer clock systems are properly buffered from the sub-systems that they drive and thus, do not suffer from jitter degradation from one sub-system to the next.




Craig

[Craig Maier]

Listening to the ultrasonics - - - the software does use ultrasonic signals to help it discriminate between signals and noises, especially impulse noise. As for listening to those signals, in theory you can. Just digitize at 192 kHz (assuming that your sound card can really do that - - - most of them just emulate anything above 48 or 96 kHz). Then, high pass filter everything above (maybe) 15 kHz. Then, use the change speed algorithm to slow it down and there you go. If you want divide by 4, just repeat the change speed process twice.

Could be an interesting experiment. I have not yet done that.

Craig

[DJBohn]

One thing that made me curious as to what's really up there had to do with a phono pre-amp I used to have. It was an earlier version of the ProJect phono box. The Spectrum Analyzer in my DC 8.5 revealed a problem or possibly a design flaw in the unit. The analyzer showed a 35 kHz continuous whine in playback while everything else sounded OK. Even though we can't hear those frequencies and most tweeters can't produce them, I can understand that some better speaker systems that can produce those frequencies could possibly cause some listening fatigue over long periods of time. I have since sold that pre-amp and went with the Tracer CTP-1000 to replace it and I have had no issues since.

[Craig Maier]

I understand your concern with an oscillating preamp. While we can not hear that frequency, the software does "hear" it. That could create less than optimal performance of things like the EZ Impulse noise filter, in particular. Also, if that signal level is high in amplitude, it could be causing some heating of your tweeter's voice coil (not a good thing).

I am not certain about the impact it would have on 'listening fatigue'.

Craig

[Craig Maier]

We received a call that they would like to see a bundle of the DCArt10.7x software together with the Rek-O-Kut phono preamplifier. So, we are considering that option and will have an answer within the month.

Craig