In article , "Arny Krueger"
wrote:


makes pretty good use of it. However a converter with a relatively coarse
step size is still going to be noisier than one that has a smaller step
size.

This is the simplest way to state the advantage of greater bit depths -
less noisy. Dither is essential in a quantizer in audio and can be
thought of as levelling the playing field (to borrow another poster's
phrase) above the nosie floor of the system. However, to pick nits, it
is true that the error is not completely "cured" (again, to borrow a
poster's term). In practical terms, however, it's just turned into a
benign noise floor. The resolution of the audio in the available dynamic
range in terms of voltages being reproduced by the system is
continuously infinitely variable and not stepped with distortion and
aliasing.

So yes, the posters who have been asking the questions appear to
basically have a grasp on it now, though there are always little caveats
and distinctions. However, don't let the little technical nit picking
confuse the practical understanding you have gained. Digest the
conceptual big picture for a moment, and then you can suffer through the
distinction of why the extra steps and their gained precision only lower
the noise in a practical sense, even though the numbers themselves are
certainly more precise.

--
Jay Frigoletto
Mastersuite
Los Angeles
promastering.com