16 / 24 Bits ?? Need advise Please

[Klewless]

I plan to capture my LPs to play back using one of the media players. Have done lots of "learning" lately. I understand that in general "more is better" and can relate to that. My real question: "Is there any PRACTICAL reason not to stick with 16 Bits". My Rotel book states that the Red Book CD standard sets the Least Significant Bit (LSB) to 6 db. Is that also true for 24 bits? I understand that LPs have maybe 60 to 65 db dynamic range (16 bits is good for nearly 100 db). So if I capture at 24, am I just storing more 0's (the silence above 65 db)? My Rotel book has a high regard for the quality of the Red Book standard. I am not into ultimate hi fi, but I want it to sound pleasingly close to the LP. Thanks for any advise anyone can offer.

[Guest " "]

The limiting factor on what you are trying to do is the sampling frequency standard of a CD which I think is 44.1 khz.

DAC's to day are 192khz, and a few are 768khz. How many khz is needed to produce the effect you want is subjective....but the point is there's more at play than the capture bit rate.

LPs are prefered by many over CD's so that would suggest that something is being loss thru the 44.1khz sampling rate standard of CD's.

[DrWho]

The difference between 16 and 24 Bits is dynamic range, which really comes down to how low the noise floor is. If you are capturing vinyl from the output of a preamp that performs the RIAA EQ, then 16-Bits should be more than adequate. You just want to make sure the loudest sound on the vinyl correlates to about -10dBU (leaving you 10dB of headroom in case anything goes louder). You can't get away with clipping digital as nicely as clipping analog.

Storing the lower resolution of your vinyl onto a higher resolution format just means that you have more accurate detail of your LP's noise floor. You won't be recording a bunch of 0's, but you'll be recording the noise floor of your Vinyl to within 30dB of the noise floor of your digital. You generally need 20dB for effective masking of noise to occur, which means the digital noise floor of 16-Bit should be masked by the noise floor of your vinyl.

The 6dB mentioned in your Rotel book is likely related to the dithering done to make the digital noise floor sound more pleasing.

[JJkizak]

And you can't burn that to a CD. You have to put it on your computer harddrive for storage.

JJK

[jerohm]

If you plan on doing any processing ... noise reduction, etc ... 24Bit wins ... so does 48K as far as that is concerned. You ultimately have to dither down to 16Bit/44.1K if you plan on burning to CD ... which takes some time if done if done with the highest precision.
IMO, of course

[Klewless]

Thank you all for your input. I expect to capture at 16 Bits and maybe at 48K so I can still brag about being an "audiophile". Some of my albums have scratches which I plan to learn how to clean up ( have Magix Cleaning Lab software).

The playback will be iTunes or Win Media Player, unless someone can suggest a better player.

Right now I am experencing a playback problem. I want to send the digital signal from my PC to my HT receiver. Unfortunately the only digital output I currently have is OPTICAL on my USB soundcard. Sometimes during playback I get a loud noise as if something got lost or ????

The one issue which puzzles me is that iTunes can control the volume to the sound card. I originally thought I was overloading the input to the soundcard so I turned the volume from the PC way down but the noise still shows up randomly. I do not understand how the volume can be controlled at the OPTICAL input (which I expected to be at a constant level).

Maybe it is a buffer size issue??

The music path is USB harddrive to the PC and USB to the soundcard.

[Marvel]

And you can't burn that to a CD. You have to put it on your computer harddrive for storage.

JJK

You can put it on CD if you want to. Depending on the format, you can't play it back in a stand-alone CD player, but only through your PC. I've put plenty of 24/96 files on CDs, but only used them for storage or tansport. THey will stream back to the PC with no problem.

Bruce

[philipbarrett]

I expect to capture at 16 Bits and maybe at 48K so I can still brag about being an "audiophile".

Waste of time, IMHO you'll never hear the difference between 16 Bit 44.1 & 48, make it easy on yourself and stay at 44.1 or make the jump to 24 Bit.

[Marvel]

I expect to capture at 16 Bits and maybe at 48K so I can still brag about being an "audiophile".

Waste of time, IMHO you'll never hear the difference between 16 Bit 44.1 & 48, make it easy on yourself and stay at 44.1 or make the jump to 24 Bit.

I would agree with that. The 48 was/is used on a bunch of video cameras. You really don't need to mess with it... only go higher if you want, but you'll start eating up disk space in a hurry.

Bruce

[philipbarrett]

I would agree with that. The 48 was/is used on a bunch of video cameras.

And film, 48 was a much easier number to manipulate into frame rates used for syncing audio & video. All the step ups are multiples of 48, 96KHz, 192KHz...

[DrWho]

FWIW, 48kHz is the native sample rate for computer playback....the windows kernel forces all audio to be resampled to 48kHz, so storing in 48kHz will actually avoid running through the crappy windows sample rate converter. The only way to avoid the windows kernel is to use ASIO for playback.

I also think running a USB harddrive in addition to a USB audio converter is really going to be pushing the limits of your USB bus. Do you know if your computer has two different USB hosts?

[Marvel]

DV only has a 5MB data rate, and that is including the stereo 48k audio. USB should be able to handle that, even USB 1.1. Firewire would be better, or SATA/eSATA.