[Richard Crowley]

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in ...
As Mr. Dorsey has observed here before, there isn't really any
true analog recording. Mechanical recording is quantized by the
wax or vinyl molecules, etc. and magnetic recording is quantized
by the size of the magnetic monopoles, head gap, tape speed, etc.

Yes, but... That's really stretching it.

I can hear the effect in both mechanical and magnetic recording.

What, to your ears, is the subjective effect?

The noise/distortion floor increases. You can do an experiment
where you can take a 16-bit recording and resample to 12-bit,
and 10-bit and 8-bit and hear the "hash" floor rising under the
signal.

Much like driving over a freshly paved macadam (blacktop,
tarmac) road vs. a gravel road. They will both get you there,
but one of them much more quitetly than the other.