15 Aug
2005
15 Aug
'05
11:12 p.m.
On 14/08/05 04:32:53, e. j. branagan - the MUSE wrote:
Some sound cards (noteably Soundblaster) introduce a
whole new type of
distortion sound. They don't sound like digital clipping, because they
are clipping at 44100hz, then resampling to 48khz before converting to
analog (or visa-versa).
Interesting.
My experience of the very cheap soundblaster (the one based on the ES1371 chip) is that it
can't handle the full 16 bit range without distortion when either recording or during
playback. I had always assumed that this distortion was occuring in an VCA mixer stage
but re-sampling is another possible explanation.
As to why CDs play correctly - normally the link between the CD-ROM drive and the sound
card is an analogue one and the D/A converter being used is the one in the CD-ROM driver
rather than the sound card. This will, of course, work at the 44100 Hz sample rate as it
would make no sense for a CD player to do otherwise.
Why do the sound card manufacters assume that sound cards are for fancy effects for
computer games? Some people may use them primarily for that but I like to listen to music
and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Steve.