The first thing that crossed my mind was, “How can anyone maintain a quiet noise floor with so many channels in a single chassis?” Sure enough, there it is. Gene noted in the “Preview” link (emphasis added):
A S/N figure of 97 dB A-weighted is nothing to write home about. Rane’s
Audio Specifications page notes the following in the section covering signal to noise ratio (emphasis added):
Pro audio equipment often lists an A-weighted noise spec -- not because it correlates well with our hearing -- but because it can "hide" nasty hum components that make for bad noise specs. Always wonder if a manufacturer is hiding something when you see A-weighting specs. While noise filters are entirely appropriate and even desired when measuring other types of noise, it is an abuse to use them to disguise equipment hum problems. A-weighting rolls off the low-end, thus reducing the most annoying 2nd and 3rd line harmonics by about 20 dB and 12 dB respectively. Sometimes A-weighting can "improve" a noise spec by 10 dB.
It’s possible folks with high-efficiency speakers will get audible noise with this amplifier. Fortunately, those people don’t need high-powered amplifiers!
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
