DAC Dithering: How can I enable and use it?

[AidanHockey5]

Hello,

I was taking a look at the SAMD51 family datasheet and noticed that the DAC features a dithering mode.
https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/268/ ... 130176.pdf

Page 1681.

I have an audio application that involves signed, 16-bit stereo WAV data being fed to the two DAC pins in 12-bit resolution mode. Right now, I'm simply using some bitshifting to map the 16-bit signed sample data to the 12-bit unsigned DAC registers, like so:

Code: Select all

void playWavSample()
{
    int16_t l = readBuf16(&wavStream);
    int16_t r = readBuf16(&wavStream);

    //16 bit signed to 12 bit unsigned conversion
     REG_DAC_DATA0 = ((l + 32768) >> 4); //Quickly write to the ADC A0   
     REG_DAC_DATA1 = ((r + 32768) >> 4); //Quickly write to the ADC A1 
}

I configure the DAC as follows before I run the above code:

Code: Select all

  analogWriteResolution(12);
  analogWrite(A0, 0);
  analogWrite(A1, 0);

This works well for quickly pushing samples to the DAC, but I can't help but wonder if I could improve my audio quality by applying a bit of dithering to the output.
After doing a little Googling, I haven't seen anything on how to utilize the built-in dithering feature. I'm pretty new to operating the DACs with lower level code, so I would really appreciate some insight or examples since I don't entirely understand what the datasheet is instructing me to do.

My preferred result would be allowing me to push 16-bit audio samples to the dithering register and have it output result to the DAC pins.

If it's possible to leverage this dithering function, I think it would be great for others to potentially improve their audio applications too! Thanks!