I know that higher voltage pre-outs have the benefit of increasing signal to noise ratio. They also can, at times, make amplifier gain setting easy (if you have 8V preouts and your amp's minimum gain/maximum sensitivity setting is 8V :))
I keep reading that higher voltage pre-outs provide increased dynamic range.
This seems to make sense at first.
But then I thought about it for a couple of minutes. In a head-unit, processor with digital inputs, etc. the digital to analog conversion is done via a DAC chips and I don't know of a DAC chip that puts out 8V.
So, does 8V pre-outs means that the DSP chip is putting out 2V for example, and then the signal is amplified to 8V?
Comparing this 8V signal to the 2V signal coming out of the DSP chip, isn't the dynamic range exactly the same?
I keep reading that higher voltage pre-outs provide increased dynamic range.
This seems to make sense at first.
But then I thought about it for a couple of minutes. In a head-unit, processor with digital inputs, etc. the digital to analog conversion is done via a DAC chips and I don't know of a DAC chip that puts out 8V.
So, does 8V pre-outs means that the DSP chip is putting out 2V for example, and then the signal is amplified to 8V?
Comparing this 8V signal to the 2V signal coming out of the DSP chip, isn't the dynamic range exactly the same?