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Re: Hmmm... but in the early days even great old analog tapes transferred to CD sounded bad. Moreover...

Hi Clark, E-stat

As I recall 16 bits does describe 96 dB of dynamic range.
With the tapes to CD or digital to CD, there are many places for problems to enter in which are not necessarily related to the sample rate and density issue.

I have a guess why 24/96 can sound better.
We hear loudness logarithmically while the Digital sampling process is linear.
So from a log perspective we see that half of the bits are devoted to describing the top 6 dB of dynamic range AND the lowest 6 dB is defined by one bit.
With decreasing level, the process is increasingly granular or step like.

At low levels, it would seem that the granularity is audible and is why recording folks go with even more than 24/96, it makes keeping track of level up relative to zero dB (an ugly carbide hard wall in digital world) much less important.

Also who ever keeps spouting Nyquist this or that to show “perfect sound”, needs to be shown the light. That only applies to a stationary signal, in the measurement world, it is assumed you need a sample rate 3 to 5 times the highest F, more if you have a highly variable signal.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying digital is the end all, I would he happier if they had adopted 24/96 from the beginning but as it was, making 16/44.8 work on a consumer scale was already a challenge back then and many old CD players did sound icky when A-B’d.

I would use anything that worked better or had fewer tradeoffs, I don’t care if its digital, FM modulated tape or analogue or some new approach.
What ever is next, it, like everything else prior to it, will have its own limitations and flaws that the sellers will omit to mention.
Best,

Tom




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