Hercules 16/12 FW: Affordable, Professional-Quality Multichannel Audio

Behavior At 16 Bits/44.1 KHz

Using a high-end sound device at 16 bits naturally limits its performance to the capabilities of that format. In practice, it should be close to the theoretical values. And that's the case with the Hercules 16/12.

• Frequency response (40 Hz - 15 kHz) : +0.02, -0.03 dB
• Weighted signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) : 98.4 dB(A)
• Distortion : 0.0094%
• Stereo separation : 99.6 dB

Frequency response : Frequency response was close to perfect, with only a very slight attenuation at the high end of the spectrum.

Noise level : No problem here - we're near the theoretical limits of 16 bit digitization.

Capacity dynamic : A very good result, with a value of around 94 dB.

Distortion : Though not as low as we had hoped, distortion was far from being a problem.

Intermodulation : A very good result. Here again there's no danger of the ID being perceptible.

Stereo separation : No problem here either; crosstalk was zero - that is, comparable to the SNR.