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A comment on Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?. Parent comment

Re:Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again? by HocusLocus on Sunday December 09, 2018 @11:46AM (#18641749)
Wow I can sympathize. Sounds like you're discerning a S/N ratio problem that would have disqualified the designs from 'high fidelity' in the late 70s and through the 80s. And you have to wonder if in your TV/Apple the hiss is there but is being noise gated. I too believe there has been regression. All it takes is one generation to 'interrupt' consumer expectations of ever increasing quality.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18569013

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Re:Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again? by blattimwind on Sunday December 09, 2018 @12:32PM (#18642051)
Not so long ago widely used audio codecs (the actual ADC/DAC part in the PC) had big problems with idle tones at low signal levels (which were simply gated off at silence, otherwise you would have gotten constant, looping artifacts). I managed to reproduce over 100 % THD+N with my old Thinkpad X200, i.e. more, very clearly audible, noise and artifacts than signal.

This is a separate issue though from the usually high output noise floor and poor isolation from other components, e.g. many complaints about many makes and models where CPU/GPU or even disk activity will induce audible pulse noises in the heaphone outputs or speakers.

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