gava
Prominent Member
SINAD is the combination of Noise (which is where you might generally find hiss - but it also depends on speaker sensitivity) and Distortion. Generally a higher score is better, and generally scores have been trending upward quite significantly over the last 15 years.
Because it is the combination - they can be of different weights for the same score. Usually however the combination gives a good indication of good engineering and "clean" or "transparent" behaviour. An perfect amplifier isn't supposed to "sound like" anything, it's simply supposed to amplify the signal coming in. However ...
People sometimes like distortion and noise - e.g. in tube amps, feeling somehow that they sound warm or musical, and there is quite a lot of research about the kinds of distortion that are more or less pleasing to the ear.
Here is a list that someone maintains. Note that some reasonably well reviewed amplifiers have SINAD scores down in the 50-70 range, and the current state of the art is up around 120dB.
Hearing a difference of 5-10 dB is not easy, but differences of 30dB I think are clearly audible.
Because it is the combination - they can be of different weights for the same score. Usually however the combination gives a good indication of good engineering and "clean" or "transparent" behaviour. An perfect amplifier isn't supposed to "sound like" anything, it's simply supposed to amplify the signal coming in. However ...
People sometimes like distortion and noise - e.g. in tube amps, feeling somehow that they sound warm or musical, and there is quite a lot of research about the kinds of distortion that are more or less pleasing to the ear.
Here is a list that someone maintains. Note that some reasonably well reviewed amplifiers have SINAD scores down in the 50-70 range, and the current state of the art is up around 120dB.
Hearing a difference of 5-10 dB is not easy, but differences of 30dB I think are clearly audible.