In Reply to: Not possible? posted by fmak on July 11, 2012 at 08:42:39:
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.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
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Follow Ups
- RE: Not possible? - Tony Lauck 14:00:59 07/11/12 (5)
- RE: Not possible? - the old school 22:10:00 07/13/12 (1)
- RE: Not possible? - Tony Lauck 09:59:40 07/14/12 (0)
- RE: Not possible? - fmak 15:44:05 07/11/12 (2)
- something is wrong ... - TBone 10:55:28 07/14/12 (0)
- Show me the data. You can not do this. You are blowing smoke. - Tony Lauck 18:07:45 07/11/12 (0)