Bits and Stuff

[Super_BQ]

Ok you guys seem to be missing a crucial point about CD players and Bits.

When you see different bits like 18 bit, 20 bit and even 1 bit... what we are talking about is the "NOISE SHAPING" of the analog wave. This has NOTHING to do with the fact that the standard audio cd is recorded in 16bit. The CD player unit still HAS to read the CD IN 16 BIT format. For 1 bit CD players it doesn't not mean it READS the cd at 1 Bit at a time.

A previous post mentioned that a 1bit DAC would produce better sound quality than older 16bit DACs. Many years ago there has been works on producing a 1 bit system but unfortunately at the time - microprocessors weren't fast enought to run 1bit data fast enough that it would surpass the current 16bit sound quality (on paper it could blow 16bit away). With currently technology, yes 1 Bit DAC does have an advantage over 16 bit CDs. However, if we move up the standard and go beyond 24 bit recordings... i don't think 1bit could keep up with the same resolution, as the amount of processing required will grow exponentially.

I guess an analogy is picture a bunch of tomatos that need to be moved from 1 spot to another. You have 1 box that can fit 16 tomotoes vs. another box that can ONLY fit 1 tomato. The disadvantage with using a 16 load box is you can not see every tomoato underneath - thus some rotten ones may pass through - however, it can move 16 tomatos at a time. The 1 tomato box can can only take 1 tomato at a time and is stuck doing 16 trips just to equal 1 trip of the other box. This would require a real fast processor for the 1 box tomoato. This scenario gets a lot worse as the bitrate increase to say 24.

For some new studio recordings. You see advertsing like "20 bit recording". All this means is in the studio, the tracks were recorded in 20bit resolution. But STILL at the end of the line, the 20bits have to be down converted to 16bit for current redbook CD audio format.

Old good quality CD players still exist today. Companies like Accuphase used mass parallel DACs in balanced configuration to get high S/N ratio and reduce the noise. Those units make 10 years ago still surpass all low and mid-fi cd players sold today.

------------------

High-end audio = a way to brainwash you!

[Seb]

Very interesting post to the less-informed like me, Super_BQ. I thank you very much!

------------------

http://members.fortunecity.com/sebdavid - go laugh at my crappy website/equipment

http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mc.asp?alias=Sebdavid - go laugh at my puny little DVD collection