cliveb;579311 Wrote: > Excuse me for coming in a bit late but I wanted to comment on this. > > "Resolution" and "precision" are two sides of the same coin. Here's an > analogy. Take a 12" ruler - what is the smallest sized object you can > confidently measure the size of? That's the resolution of your 12" > ruler. Now measure something that's about 6" long - what's the accuracy > with which you can measure its exact length? That's the precision. Can > you see that both are constrained by the physical characteristics of > the ruler itself, and are fundamentally the same thing? If you use a > micrometer instead, you'll be able to both measure smaller objects > (better resolution) and more accurately the size of relatively large > objects (better precision). We can liken the 12" ruler to 8 bit digital > audio and the micrometer to 16 bit audio. > > When it comes to audio, both resolution and precision are limited by > the same thing: bit-depth (digital) or noise floor (analogue). They are > just different ways of inaccurately measuring the voltage of a music > signal. > > In particular, analogue does not have unlimited precision, because > although (unlike digital) the voltage it delivers can be any arbitrary > value, the noise floor means that the actual voltage is only an > approximation. If the voltage should be 1V, an anlogue system might > deliver anywhere between 0.999V or 1.001V, and you have no way of > knowing what it should really be. It's a bit like you using that 12" > ruler to measure an object is exactly 6" long - due to its lack of > precision you are only in a position to say that it's somewhere between > 5.95" and 6.05"
Thanks Clive - I can take the night off :-) -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... Touch(wired/XP) - TACT 2.2X (Linear PSU) + Good Vibrations S/W - MF Triplethreat(Audiocom full mods) - Linn 5103 - Aktiv 5.1 system (6x LK140's, ESPEK/TRIKAN/KATAN/SEIZMIK 10.5), Pekin Tuner, Townsend Supertweeters, Blue Jeans Digital,Kimber Speaker & Chord Interconnect cables Kitchen Boom, Outdoors: SB Radio, Harmony One remote for everything. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=82050 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
