DanglingDiamonds_001_16Bit_441000_Rev001 for SPDIF testing
Here is a wav file I use for SPDIF testing.
This is a software-generated waveform, which is difficult to pass through an audio chain unmolested unless no processing is applied. This is precisely what you want when transferring via spdif from one machine to another.
The diamonds are on a ½ scale pedestal which will not survive any low end roll-off .
The diamonds are +/- pulses on alternating samples, which will not survive (intact) high-end roll-off or sample rate conversions.
Whichever channel (left / right) is currently silent should show the power meter dropping below 140 db (set up for a wide range meter in audacity) and this will not happen unless all bits in the channel are zero.
The pulse blocks following the dangling diamonds should have flat tops and bottoms, which align with full-scale, half-scale or (–) full-scale.
I used this waveform fed into a PC to discover that a working hardware solution failed when the operating system was changed from XP to win7 and win10 (exact same hardware). Turns out win10 refused to allow 44100 on the spdif input and assumed all SPDIF was at 48Khz then force a sample rate conversion.
The file is here as a wave file you can play from one machine to another or alternatively burn to a CD and play from the coax out.
To see how sensitive this waveform is to processing, you can try applying equalization or sample rate conversion and witness how the waveform goes downhill quickly.
This is much quicker than transferring data, saving it and doing a file comparison.
