Many seems to believe it is signal to noise ratio or dynamic range that matters. Many will say that 16/44.1 is good enough for archiving vinyl, for example, as the s/n of vinyl is only about 70dB and CD is 96dB.
But it is resolution that is important, not just s/n! You would think that 16bit is 16bit all the way down, right? After all it is called Linear PCM. Well it isn't. At -54dB ref 0dBFS 16bit we're at 7bit resolution, not 16. At -66 to -72dB where vinyl surface noise is (and maybe some tape hiss) we're at 4 to 5 bit resolution. Try recording something at 6-7bit resolution. It sounds bad! But there is vital musical information in this range. Instrument color and ambience, concert hall atmosphere. That is why 16bit depth is not good enough for acoustic music. In 24bit, -96dB is still 8bit resolution, in 16bit there is nothing but noise. Phil said it further up the thread: Phil Leigh;577776 Wrote: > Get a true "24-bit" recording from somewhere and convert it to 16-bit in > Audacity. > > Do they now sound the same? > > Do this with classical music with quiet passages. Rock music generally > won't really show any differences. I believe analog more or less keeps it's resolving capacity all the way down until noise mask detail. 13bit is still 8192 distinct dynamic levels. If it is still around 13bit 40dB down, no wonder it sounded good. -- OGS Vortexbox - Touch - Tact RCS 2.0 - Rotel RB-1060 (mod) - Tannoy Sensys DC1 (mod) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OGS's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=32981 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=82050 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
