[LAU] Pro Audio? OT rant.

[Jörn Nettingsmeier]

On 12/29/2012 09:54 PM, Florian Paul Schmidt wrote:
> On 12/29/2012 01:47 AM, Jörn Nettingsmeier wrote:
>> the frequencies below that are reproduced _perfectly_ by
>> a cd.
>
> Playing the devil's advocate here..
>
> Not true. There's also quantization error due to each sample being
> represented as a discrete value from a set of 2^16 values in the case of
> a CD. Shannon's sampling theorem requires afaict that the samples are
> from the set of the real numbers.

true, i should have stated that explicitly.
but quantisation noise is just that, noise. every analog system has 
noise, too, and yet people love it.
the important thing is to make the noise signal-independent, because 
signal-dependent noise is very very nasty even at very low levels. this 
is achieved by proper dithering. you can even push the noise where it is 
least obvious.

to summarize, there are two physical constraints, and they are common to 
analog and digital signals: bandwidth and dynamic range (or, more 
precisely, signal-to-noise ratio). in both respects, digital systems 
out-do analog ones easily, by orders of magnitude, if desired. so any 
preference for analog has nothing to do with inherent superiority or 
fidelity. either it's particular artefacts that are considered 
"euphonic", or it's a sense of conceptual simplicity and elegance, or, 
most often, the user's inability to understand digital systems combined 
with incomplete understanding of analog systems.


-- 
Jörn Nettingsmeier
Lortzingstr. 11, 45128 Essen, Tel. +49 177 7937487

Meister für Veranstaltungstechnik (Bühne/Studio)
Tonmeister VDT

http://stackingdwarves.net