John: Actually, it's neither.
8 bits is actually sufficient to reproduce fairly low distortion audio, given a good sample rate, but with limited dynamic range. Since communication quality audio doesn't require much dynamic range, that's not a problem. I don't believe the fact that it's an 8 bit quantization is much of a factor in the quality of the resulting communications and I don't think there's much reason to go beyond 8 bits. Being in "pro sound" is clearly biasing your perspective on this. I certainly wouldn't want an 8 bit music system, but for communications, I think it's fine. For voice communications, 28 bits would be beyond overkill. The real issue is the data compression technology, which compromises sound quality to limit data bandwidth. Still, I've heard some pretty acceptable D-Star audio from good stations with good signals. It's not "live", but that's not the point. If you feel a need for high quality audio Hamming, I suggest you visit with the guys that hang out around 14.180 KHz. (Is that the frequency?). Chuck - N8DNX On 9/1/2010 6:19 PM, n2gyn wrote: > It's NOT a microphone issue. It's the small bit processing. I have been in > Pro sound for most of my life. Their is NO WAY to get any quality at 8bit. > This is unexceptionable to me! I rather listen to all the QRM and QRN in the > world with analog. > I am very surprise that their are not more people that feel this way. > The bit rate has to be at lest 28bit to starting sounding acceptable. > John
