UNICON Test

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For this test the UNICON was used with the AudioExcel AV510 (forerunner of the AV511, C-media CMI 8338 Audio Chip). It belongs to the inexpensive digital sound cards class. In concret this means that the digital part (24-bit, 16-bit SPDIF input and output at 44.1KHz) is wonderfull, but the analog part is mistreated as a step-child (which does not matter for our purposes).

All diagramms show a frequency range from 30 Hz up to 20 kHz. The inserted signal was a 1 kHz sine which is visible as a wonderful peak.

• The first test was a pure loopback of the SPDIF signal via a 10 metre TOSlink-cable.
  The noise-underground is lower than -95 dB everytime which is excellent (just compare it to the manual of your MiniDisc or DAT recorder ;-) often their specifications are not this good).

• In the second test a Sony MDS-JE520 was used: it got the signal out of the computer via the UNICON-AV510-chain and replayed it.
  This test shows how big the quality loses for MiniDisc recordings are. The 1 kHz signal is also sharp. If you compare it to the loopback you will see how the ATRAC 4.5 CODER replays the noise-underground.

• A final test using a portable Sharp MiniDisc recorder (Sharp MD-MS200H) which uses ATRAC 5 coding. For recording the Sharp device was used via TOSlink-cable (TOSlink->Miniplug), the replay device was the Sony used in the previous test.
  The difference between ATRAC 5 (portable Sharp) and ATRAC 4.5 (Sony) is very clear to observe.

Ok, these pictures do not claim to be absolutely right; at least they show that you can make bit-clear recordings using the UNICON...

More infos about AudioExcel AV510, AV511 are available here:

• Adrian's Digital Web Hideout
  offers many information concerning the theme SPDIF and AudioExcel
• www.cmedia.com.tw
  page of the chip manufacturer of the AV510 (CMI 8338 chip) / AV511 (CMI 8738)

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