Re: XY controller pedal. - and audio specs

[Rainer Straschill <moinsound@googlemail.com>]

>> could you ask this friend what that is supposed to mean:
>> "Ultra low noise design with 120 dB S/N ratio and -100 dB noise floor"
> I could ask him that but he won't have an answer. Why not just ask zooms 
>tech support yourself?

Thanks, Teddy, and sorry for writing my original email in jest. I
actually wanted to mock Zoom for putting specs on their page which say
as much as "it goes to eleven".
(and the following message is in no way meant as any form of critizism
towards you, just to make sure this is understood).

(Science lecture following):
This is actually a rather fitting comparison. "dB" is not an actual
measurement unit, rather, it's the logarithm of the comparison of two
values, something like 20 log x/xref (with "x" being the thing we're
talking about and "xref" being the reference it's compared to). So,
just as in the Spinal Tap reference, a statement like "-100dB" doesn't
say anything at all, because we don't know how big our xref is.
It's different in the signal to noise ratio, simply because here
"signal" is x and "noise" is xref.
(babbling ends here).

There has been a tendency among a great deal of manufacturers (and
that's nothing new, this has been part of the home audio scene long
before we all had computers) to just invent some fantasy values and
use them for marketing.

So even with the 120dB SNR thing, what about:
  * weighting curve applied (applying the typical "A" curve usually
gives you 'round 3dB for that kind of device), or none applied.
  * sample rate and bit depth selected (if not implicitly clear from
the context).
  * frequency ranged considered for the measurements .

For comparison, let's look at the Konnekt24D specs (that device I had
been bitching about earlier):
"SNR: >111 dB (A), >108 dB, 20 Hz to 20 kHz"

Now that's more like it.

But I digress...the message should be that:
With today's gear, SNR is not an issue for all the guitarist-oriented
gear I know, as even the rating of the poor devices is one order of
magnitude higher than that of a guitar. But if you absolutely need to
consider them (for whatever reason), make sure you compare figures
which talk about the same thing.

Best,

              Rainer