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Creative X-Fi HD USB SB1240 Measurements (DAC - External Loopback)

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Hands:
I wanted to post more measurements of this unit for completeness, since it is currently what I use as my ADC when measuring other gear. As such, any other measurements I do using this as the ADC will be limited by this unit's performance, and these measurements can act as some sort of reference for what those limitations are. And, since this is a loopback that tests the DAC and ADC in the unit, ADC performance by itself should only be better than what is seen in the context of these measurements.

This post also shows some of the new approaches I'm taking to measurements compared to the ones I did for the Metrum (which I hope to revise), mostly when using ARTA. Jitter measurements are now included using JTest files. Spectrum measurements should be much more informative now, and I've also decided to not follow up with further sine wave response measurements on DACs (details below).

Do note that when looking at my measurements, I do NOT always set scales and zooms to match 1:1 across measurements. For example, with impulse responses, I'll scale and zoom to get the best depiction of the information I can.

Refer to the Metrum Quad DAC measurements thread for any other detail I might have missed.

I've attached a ZIP file of what should be all the tests I have of this unit, some of which I did not post on here.

Test Hardware and Setup

1. Acer Aspire 5560G Laptop - Locked at 1.4GHz and 0.9125V via K10Stat, dedicated GPU disabled, internal fan disconnected (low temps and stability verified), most Fidelizer tweaks applied, and other hardware, software, and services disabled.

2. Creative X-FI HD USB (SB1240) - External loopback tests done with BJC 6' RCA cable, powered by USB bus, connected to Acer laptop. Unit is limited to 48/96KHz input/output.

Software

Rightmark 6.3.0 and ARTA

Links

Creative SB1240 - http://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-digital-music-premium-hd
RightMark Audio Analyzer - http://audio.rightmark.org/index_new.shtml
ARTA: http://www.artalabs.hr/

Hands:
JTest 24/48 file with hardware and software set to 24/96 (did this to match my NOS1704 tests, did not see a difference running hardware and software in 24/48). Did my best to match Marv's latest jitter measurements. Used JRiver Media Center for JTest file playback (no software upsampling).

Hands:
1. 1KHz Sine Wave Spectrum at 24/96
2. 100Hz Sine Wave Spectrum at 24/96
3. 60Hz and 7KHz Dual Sine Wave Spectrum at 24/96
4. 25Hz and 66KHz Dual Sine Wave Spectrum at 24/96
5. Noise at 24/96

Hands:
1. Periodic impulse response. Notice the bit of post-ringing relative to a NOS DAC.
2. 1KHz square wave response. Also shows additional ringing vs. a NOS DAC.
3. 20KHz sine wave response. This shows the same characteristics as the Metrum Quad NOS DAC at 20KHz, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to explain what's going on here. Thus, I'm not going to be running sine wave response tests for the foreseeable future on DACs.
4. FR and distortion graph generated by a sweep impulse response. Much like the Metrum DAC, no idea if this is value at all or not but figure it won't hurt to post.

Hands:
For completeness and convenience, I will post the 16/48 and 24/96 RightMark measurements.

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB | +0.02, -0.08 | Excellent
Noise level, dB (A) | -92.2 | Very good
Dynamic range, dB (A) | 87.8 | Good
THD, % | 0.0028 | Excellent
THD + Noise, dB (A) | -82.2 | Good
IMD + Noise, % | 0.011 | Very good
Stereo crosstalk, dB | -89.4 | Excellent
IMD at 10 kHz, % | 0.012 | Very good
General performance | Very good

Files attached:

1. Frequency Response
2. Noise
3. Dynamic Range
4. THD
5. IMD
6. Crosstalk
7. Swept IMD

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