Auralic Aries

@ghdprentice that is consistent with my layman’s understanding of noise floor. Would it be reasonable to attribute the new appearance of low level sound (i.e. softer notes I hadn’t noticed before) in the program material to a lowering of the noise floor?

George, I don’t quite understand how pricing of components contributes to lowering of the noice floor. Oops sp. Now imagine if you owned a DAC where the price is a fraction of what you paid and has a measured S/N ratio of 140dB in each channel. Oh wait ;). Now that’s NOICE!

@rfnoise in short yes.

Here is the thing about noise floor the noise floor of a device like a streamer is likely considerably lower than the noise floor of the amp you're using. So perhaps it's a lower noise floor but likely its just a better more transparent component.

@rfnoise .

Sure hearing more notes can be attributed to lowering the noise floor. But a lot of damage is done to the sound stage, imaging, and background long before the level of covering up actual musical notes occurs. For instance, in a symphony hall when the orchestra slowly fades out into absolute silence and you are left with this airy silence and cavernous quiet. If your system is reproducing this, the music fades but you are not drawn into this cavernous comfortable silence… that is the noice floor jacking you up… like an amp with the bias too high. It isn’t that you hear it directly, it is indirect… like undifferentiated pressure on your eardrums. A lack of being drawn into the silence.

@kmmd ‘’I mention costs on a component to help people get an idea of the category of component I am speaking about. People on this forum have greatly different exposure to audio components. Some low end some high end. So instead of making most of the readers look up some component it is offered as a convenient reference point… that I am not talking about cheap or highly exotic components. Yes, in general, you get what you pay for. Also in the case of the Sim components I think few people would know that they offer a power supply that is as sophisticated as the actual component. It is a shorthand. If every detail was carefully fleshed out such not to allow someone to find an opening to criticize, then every post would be pages long and no one would read them.

@Jond ..

Source component noise floors are critical because the rest of the chain is a series of amplifications. Even if the noise floor of the streamer is low, what noise is boosted and then added to the noise of the next component. Just like in analog the source is most critical in what is to follow.

@ghdprentice I appreciate the rather eloquent elaboration. That must be the “blacker blacks” I keep reading about. I have to admit, that must be some kind of power supply you’ve got. I bet when that baby hits 88mph you see some serious sh*t!

Seriously though, I really am pleased with the sound I’m getting. Compared to when I was hooking up my cell phone via 3.5” jack to my tired old Yamaha a-1000 driving Realistic Nova-8’s, my current setup is on another planet.