"Garthrr" wrote in message
...
Thanks Chris,
So is this point a matter of contention or is this agreed upon by all? If
it is
agreed upon then is the argument on the "24 bit sounds no better than 16
bit"
side that the effects of the ambiguity are inherently negligable or
perhaps
that interpolation or something else "repairs" the ambiguity adequately? I
hope
I have framed thew question well enough to be understood.

Garth~

24 bit sounds no better or may sound better simply because of the analog
front end of the converter and the quality of the converter itself in terms
of thermal noise. But beyond that, 24 bits is not greater resolution, and I
think that's what throws people off. It's greater bit depth, depth being
the representative word meaning it does down to further quiet (ideally -144
dBFS, but thermal noise plays a part along with the front end
implimentation).

Ostensibly this only means that RECORDINGS might sound better because
there's more available headroom above noise to fart around with, but great
quality digital recordings have been made on 16 bit machines, so it's not
inherent that 24 bits is better. It is inherent that one can be less
involved with watching levels on a session because now we can have peaks
that eek into -18 or so without worrying that one of the major hits is going
to freak into the clipping range. Otherwise, if you calibrate your system
where 0 dB VU = -20 dBFS or so then you still have the same headroom
regardless of bit depth.

The problem can lie in the fact that the noise floor is higher with 16 bit,
but it's more likely that almost any room (project studio concept) is going
to be far noisier than the theoretical lower limit of a 16 bit converter
anyway, so where's the great boost from 24 bit? Again, it comes down to
noise floor, and noise floor only. In the basic 16 bit world we just went
through one would be lucky to get a noise floor of -90 dBFS, but the
realworld range is more like -80 to -82 dBFS (cassette and vinyl were 10 to
25 dB noiser). In a 24 bit world, that figure drops maybe 20 dB or so, as I
often see about -104 dBFS for decent converters, and something like -110
dBFS on really good converters. Not even close to the theoretical lower end
that 24 bit converters have. But it is quieter, and this may make a
difference. It also may not. It is, by no means, the telling tale on
recording. It's simply a fact of the converters bit depth. Better ones are
quieter than cheaper ones. It's even possible that really good 16 bit
converters can sound better than really bad 24 bit ones.

However, DSD has been described as someone standing at a light switch,
turning it on and off. If they turn it on only once a second, then your
ability to resolve the room becomes haphazard has you try to scan the entire
contents of the room. The faster the room light is turned on and off, the
more perception there is that it's on and you have the greater resolving
power to see the contents. Before it was a chair here, a table there, etc.
Now as it goes faster and faster you see, not only the chair, but the
slipper protruding from underneath it that might trip you were you walking
around in the dark. As it goes even faster you see that there's little bits
of paper on the floor or dust or cat hair or cat hairball, etc.

I realize that it's not a technically correct description of what scanning
an input at 2.8 mHz is really like, but even in it's simple form it's easy
to see that, relative to the content, the faster the light goes off and on,
the more like being on it is. The more it seems like it's on, the more you
can see, or in the case of DSD, the more you can hear. Whether you NEED to
have all the content exposed is another question. If I don't intend to walk
across the room and kill the spider crawling up the wall, do I really need
the resolution to see it in the first place? Or do I just need to know the
layout of the room?

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio
Purchase your copy of the Fifth of RAP CD set at www.recaudiopro.net.
See how far $20 really goes.






"I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle."
Ed Cherney