Behavior At 24 Bits/96 KHz

Operation at 96 kHz offers improved performance in certain areas and a slight (but very slight) deterioration in others. This is fairly logical behavior, since increasing bandwidth is not always totally advantageous. In any case, the results were excellent for a card of this type.

Frequency response : No change in reproduction of the audio spectrum. The grade remains "very good."

Noise level : Noise becomes very low at this level and equivalent to that of the best mass-market sound cards.

Dynamic capacity : The dynamic capacity decreases in relation to 48 kHz, which seems to offer the best compromise.

Distortion : Despite figures that were not quite as good, the result is very comparable to that achieved at 48 kHz.

Intermodulation : Here again, there is a slight deterioration in comparison with performance at 48 kHz but the result remained very good.

Stereo separation : This leaps the 100 dB barrier. In other words, you have nothing to worry about as far as diaphony is concerned.

The phono input is a very interesting addition because it proves to be fully usable. The RIAA correction is pretty good so noise is very faint, much less than is usual when playing a vinyl disk. So there are no worries on that point.