s1.newsguy.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path:
NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.200.229.23
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.200.229.23
X-Trace: news.cybercity.ch 1075757204 213.200.229.23 (2 Feb 2004 22:26:44 +0100)
Lines: 49
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 127.0.0.1

Harry Lavo wrote:
That does not really address my point that there is no audible difference
between 24/96 and 24/192 if you remove AD and DA issues.


Hey, you've got to get it from analgo to digital and back somehow. You
can't escape AD/DA issues.

Of course not. But my point/hypothesis is that 24/96 and 24/192 are better
formats to store the musical information than 1 bit DSD at 64 times 44.1 Khz.
And 24/96 sounds the same to human ears as 24/192 as far as the musical
information in the signal is concerned.
To investigate this you need to separate the AD and DA from the format.
So if people say SACD sounds closer to the analogue master we need to know
if that is (if it's true) because the AD is better and/or the DA is better
and/or there is more information in the signal.
Points to investigate a
a) is PCM 24/96 and/or PCM 24/192 transparent relative to DSD master.
b) is DSD transparent relative to PCM 24/96 and/or 24/192
for a) you take a DSD master, convert it digitally to PCM and convert it
digitally back to DSD. Listen to it via DSD hardware DA before and after.
Can you tell it apart in double blind testing? This establishes if PCM
is transparent relative to DSD using DSD DA. Can you tell apart the DSD
and the PCM? This establishes if PCM is transparent relative to DSD via
PCM DA.
for b) you take a PCM master digitally convert into DSD and back to PCM.
Listen to it via PCM hardware DA. Can you tell it apart in double blind
testing? Listen to the DSD on DSD DA. This will tell you if DSD is
transparent relative to PCM with DSD and PCM DA.
Based on the results it should be possible to further investigate the
AD and DA of both processes and see which does a better job by converting
back and forth digitally and compare the analogue master with DSD and PCM
versions played on DSD and PCM DAs.

I guess we'll just disagree...I'll continue to trust my ears as a
consumer
vehicle, and rely on other's whose ear's I trust at the mastering level.
Would that I had a Sonoma workstation and the latest in 192/24 recording
capability so that I could make my own test comparisons.

And I would like to see clean tests as well that properly distinguish
between the AD, the signal content and the DA. Right now it's all a mix
with way too many variables unaccounted for.

Well, perhaps write John and outline a test as to how that might be done.

I'm afraid it's not trivial and requires quite some access to pricey
hardware.