"Audio Showdown: Swiss Army Knife vs. Precision Scalpel!"

Multitone vs REW.  Two extremely important and wonderful free software programs in the audio measurement sphere.  I am not sure which qualifies as the Swiss Army Knife, and which as the Scalpel.  They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but for basic measurement tasks they produce very similar results within any reasonable margin of error.  

I ordered a Topping E30 II Lite DAC (DAC only, no headamp), which is about as cheap a 'good' DAC as your money can buy.  I am putting it through its paces to create an actual 'lower-end' reference to refer all my DAC/Pre-amp reviews back to, however, I continue to be impressed by the measured performance of even the cheapest Chi-Fi products.  

I cannot make any reliability claims, though.  I have very little time with the DUT.  Also, I cannot blindly claim "it measures so well it MUST sound as good or better than more expensive products!"  That is a great way to placate oneself as and end-user when you cannot afford better.  The fact remains there are nice measuring products that sound as well as my Yorkie's crap stinks, while there are 'good enough' measuring products that may fall short in the technical camp according to some, yet sound truly 'audiophile'.

Back to the point of this post entry; what does each measurement suite say about the Topping E30 II Lite DAC.  They don't give out exact results, but IMO the results are well within any margin of error and won't contribute to any audible issues. 

These measurements were taken with only the E1DA COSMOS ADC in play.  The real special sauce that allows these programs to go from fairly accurate to downright giant killers is the E1DA COSMOS APU external notch filter.  That was not used here; this is just a quick look-in at two different programs measuring the same DUT under the exact same conditions and equal parameters.  They stack up well against each other.  

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Topping E30 II Lite measured with Multitone software

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Topping E30 Lite measured with REW software

THD w/Multitone = -120.2db
THD w/Room EQW= -120.3db

THD+N w/Multitone = -104.6db
THD+N w/Room EQW= -104.db

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This is just the tip of the iceberg, as they say.  I have a backlog of measurements to make, and my hardware (and knowledge how to use it) keeps improving week to week, thanks to an extremely generous benefactor that has me contemplating an Audio Precision test unit.  As you will see as we progress through the Blog section of EuphonicReview.com, the E1DA suite of tools combined with the available readily attainable software is so good, it may be in the best interests of Euphonic Review to pocket any money earmarked for the 20 grand at minimum Audio Precision.  

After all, the next major addition to the website is tube reviews and sales, and I have already invested a hefty sum into an Amplitrex AT1000 tester.  

It is a golden era for testing all manner of devices.  I hope you are enjoying or will enjoy this common journey at which ends audio nirvana.  

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