Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Digital Drive ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: Lost code

Posted by mls-stl on June 23, 2012 at 17:45:12

In Reply to: RE: Lost code posted by Sumflow on June 23, 2012 at 16:41:37:

>> Are you referring to data loss, or sensitivity to equal
>> loudness contours. Because a great pre-amp can compensate
>> to a large degree for lower volumes.

I was not referring to the Fletcher Munson curves regarding the loss of hearing sensitivity above and below the midrange. That's a separate issue.

To use an analog example, a good LP recording has perhaps a 70 dB dynamic range if you're lucky. A good concert hall or recording studio would probably have a background noise level of 20 dB or so. You'd probably be very lucky to get 30 dB in a home environment.

If you are listening to the record at a reference level that gives you 100 dB peaks, the lowest signal level on the record would be right at your room's noise floor.

If you decrease the volume to casual or background listening levels -- say 70 dB peaks -- you've now got the bottom 30 dB of your recording masked by your residual room noise.

I won't argue with you that preamps are capable of changing the sound quality of a source, but unless you're using a loudness contour button, the frequency balance and dynamics are not going to be substantially affected as you reduce volume. You've simply got low-level information that gets moved into the background noise.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Schiit Audio

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---