|
Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
For Sale Ads |
Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.
Original Message
RE: Not possible?
Posted by Tony Lauck on July 11, 2012 at 14:00:59:
Rip the test disk and examine the samples numerically. You will find that no sample deviates from the allowed range of -32768 to +32767, inclusive. Therefore this test disk is a legal CD. A DAC should play it undistorted. If a DAC can not play it, it is a DAC problem. The most likely cause is limiting in the output of a digital filter. That this happens is evidence that the DAC designer was more interested in good numbers on a spec sheet rather than good sound. By sacrificing less than 1 dB of signal to noise ratio this problem could have been avoided.
Your comment about "hot" CDs is something else. In most cases idiot producers, engineers, and/or musicians are deliberately distorting their "music" with compression and even clipping in the hopes of selling copies to idiot customers who have never heard of a volume control. None of these CDs are too hot, they are just poor. When played on a good system they will sound the same as they did when played in the mastering studio.