Sound Card Performance Technical Benchmarks
TechTalk
Analog to Digital (ADC) Test Details
In the Analog to Digital test, the wave input or sound recording portion of the sound card is tested in terms of its ability to accurately convert a ordinary audio signal from a microphone or an audio component into a digital signal. This portion of the card is tested as an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC).
A test signal is generated digitally (in other words, by a program as data) and converted to analog (in other words, an ordinary audio signal voltage that has many possible amplitudes and varies with time) using a reference Digital to Analog Converter (DAC). The reference DAC is chosen for accuracy.
The digital output of the sound card is evaluated for distortion and noise by digital means. In actual use, the output of the sound card's ADC would probably be recorded as a wave file. Depending on the Distortion and Noise Analyzer used, we operate the card under test directly, or we analyze a wave file made by the sound card and reference wave file recorder software.
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