Timothy Stockman wrote: > As I recall, Philips wanted 14-bits; that was about the limit of good > DAC chips that could be produced for a reasonable price at the time. > It was also what the EIAJ digital audio standard specified. However, > Sony held out for 16-bits and eventually got Philips to accept it.
16 bits is nice in that its 96dB snr, making it easy to claim perfect sound. I think a lot of the early DACs were 12 bits back then. > So far as 44.1, the compact disc standard was developed before the days > when computers (and hard drives) were up to the task of digital audio. So true. If they were a bit more computer aware, they could have used computer disk technology to read the disks rather than the crude stuff that RedBook has. There is some argument about when the design was done, there were PR releases in 1981 or so. In 1980, I bought a 200 MB disk drive, it cost $33,000 and was the size of a washing machine. In about 1984, I bought my first PC hard disk, it was 5MB, cost $5000, and was full height 5-1/4". > already widely available in the entertainment industry. Also, they > probably had an eye toward integrating digital audio with video, and > achieving sync would have been more difficult at a oddball sample rate. Altho odd ball rates are still with us, see all the 3/2 pulldown for video of movies, etc. _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
