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digital vertical resolution / vertical sensitivity

hey,

i'm looking for an oscilloscope for audio applications, preferably digital, so i'm not looking for a huge bandwidth

so i'm looking at the instek gds-806s and similar models,

anyhoo, i have a question about the vertical resolution

it states the vartical resolution is 8 bit, and the vertical sensitivity is 2mV/Div to 5 V/Div

my question is where typically is the DAC located?

is it after the vertical sensitivity switch in which case at 2 mV / div i would expect a resolution of

(2mV / DIV )* (no of div) / 2^8 = 0.008 mV * no of div = 0.08 mv with

10 div

similarly at 5 V /div i would expect resolution to be

5/ 256 * no divs =0.2 volts with 10 divs

or is the DAC located before the vertical sensitivty in which case the resolution is always the same regardless of vertical resolution setting?

i read that for audio purposes, 16 bit minimum is necessary. Is this true?

also if anyone could recommend a decent oscope for audio purposes please let me know. i'd consider a PC / soundcard unit but would rather a stand alone digital unit.

Thanks

Tom

Reply to
boonstra171
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I believe the DAC is typically after the input attenuator and preamp. The DAC range typically covers the the vertical screen area, plus some over/under-range. This is why is it always best (from a quantization error/noise reduction standpoint) to adjust the input attenuator so that your signal fills most of the screen. This takes the best advantage of the resolution of the DAC.

Note that most of the better DSOs allow you to do averaging on your repetitive signals, which allow you to effectively increase the number of bits of resolution.

Reply to
w2aew

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