On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 04:43:39 +0200, Fons Adriaensen wrote: > On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 09:59:10AM -0400, Paul Davis wrote: > > On Tue, 2006-10-17 at 11:56 +0200, Fons Adriaensen wrote: > > > > > 'THE SAMPLES ARE NOT THE SIGNAL'. The real peak level of a > > > signal when converted to the analog domain can be several > > > dB above that of the highest sample. > > > > indeed. there are people who are coming to believe that this "error" is > > responsible for a significant part of the audible difference between > > digital and analog playback when the levels in the source material are > > high. > > It could be. OTOH, most DACs today would upsample and filter before the > real conversion takes place, and could allow for this. But maybe they > don't, and just clip at that point.
I've actually measured this with an oscilloscope (because I'm that sad, and to settle an argument), and at least the DA converters I tested did respect the fact that the peak voltage was obove the INT_MAX voltage level. It was a few years ago, so I cant remember what I tested, but one thing was a yamaha digital desk. - Steve
