30-Oct-2015, 17:31
(29-Oct-2015, 16:32)yesgrey Wrote: Hi,
I decided to make an experience to workaround Phantom's digital volume and see (hear) if I could improve its sound...
Part of my setup is a professional sound card (RME Fireface 400) which I connect to Phantom's optical input. I decided to try using the volume control on the software applications, which use dither, instead of using Spark digital volume. For this to work, I was setting up volume in Spark to 100, to be sure I was getting the full resolution in Phantom.
However, when I did this, I noticed a lot of background noise in the sound (kind of white noise), and later, when I tried without sending any signal, I realized that the noise comes from the optical input, even when not playing any sounds. As soon as I reach level 80 in Spark the noise starts. I find it strange that the noise comes from my soundcard, which being a professional one has very low noise levels, so, I was wondering if it might be any problem on how Phantom/Spark deal with the optical input?
If you try to raise the volume in Spark to 80 or above, when not playing anything, when having Phantom's optical input selected, do you hear a strong noise (white noise)?
I know RME has a pretty good reputation in the pro-audio world, but I've found their stuff to be highly suspect. I myself have had a RME Fireface 800 that has been basically gathering dust for years because it is so godawfully bad. I've had much better results with Apogee, Lynx, and, on the home audio side, iFi. But in view of my own miserable experience with RME I would not rule out problems on that side of things. Sorry.
