How is Sony getting away with running numbers like these for CD Signal to Noise ratio?! Even the Alpine F1 is reaching 115+dB. They are also building it with 24-Bit Burr Brown D/A Converters all for a $300 price range? Have I lost track of Car Audio for that long? Has Sony managed to actually mark a +1 in my book?

http://sm.crutchfield.com/S-bFfeqsWD...o&i=158CDXM781

 

I havent seen/heard a good sony since the CDX-C90 days. All the modern sony stuff is crap to me. I haven't heard this particular unit yet, but it has the makings and *shrieks* price to be insane!

 

I agree I have always considered Sony Head Units to be crap. If you look at all of their new stuff, they are most all advertising the 120dB.

Does anyone know more info on the 24-Bit Burr Brown D/A Converters? Kenwood is also using this in their mid-level head units. I heard a rumor that these aren't that great. Maybe I am jumping to conclusions here....

 

I want to know how you get 120 dB out of a CD with 16 bit resolution in a car?

Do you have to remove the engine and park it in the middle of an empty Kansas corn field?

The volumes most people expose their ears to I'd be surprised if they can here a 40 dB signal to noise ratio!

 

i saw that as well and am a bit skeptical.

 

There is just no way that they are getting 120DB of S/N ratio. That's 6 decades or 1,000,000 to 1 . I'm an electrical engineer and worked on ECM (electronic counter-measure) equipment that cost many millions of dollars and we struggled to get a 120DB ratio.

AND, there's no reason to have that in a car. I'm not sure what the noise level is in a Z but let's assume it's around 70DBm. The threshold of pain is 120DBm. This is where you go running and holding your ears. So, the max S/N ratio you really need is about 50DB and you can probably get away with something like 40. That's 2 decades or 100:1.

These numbers that they brag about come from the marketing department, not from the engineering department.