Hi Again, I'll take some time to explain my position (at least so you understand where we disagree).
QUOTE: it certainly does matter a whole hoot what the CD palyer is. When playing cds on it. I AGREE: absolutely some CD players are much better than others QUOTE: A 24 bit cd played will pick out layers that a 16 bit player merely glosses over. I DISAGREE: the 24 bit player is processing the same information - there are no additional layers QUOTE: Play a complictaed piece on a 24 bit cd player and the same on a 16 bit player and there is a great deal of difference I AGREE: But I believe the difference is not because there is more information in this case. I believe that the difference is due to better smoothing and interpolation. For example on a 16 bit CD recording consider consecutive samples that differ in only the last bit. On a 16bit player there is no opportunity to describe how the signal should change from one sample to the next. On a 24bit player this 1 bit difference represents 256 steps in the 24bit world. It is possible to use algorithms to intoerpolate between the 2 values (ie not leaving it to chance). In this case with well designed interpolation you should get a signal that is likely to match the original sound more closely. BUT this is achieved by 'making up' the intervening signal and does not relate to what was actually in the original signal. So 24 bit CD players _can_ produce a better sound than 16 bit players, but they don't do it by taking more detail from the CD. By the way the DAC in the Squeezebox 2 is a 24 bit DAC so it corresponds to the 24 CD player case above. I hope that was clear enough (so you understand my argument even if we continue to disagree). Cheers Malcolm _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
