Pat Farrell;262763 Wrote: > jt25741 wrote: > > Pat Farrell;262753 Wrote: > >> jt25741 wrote: > >>> But if you have or plan to have true 24 bit recordings, you may > not > >>> want to digitally attenuate and start truncating real data bits to > >>> preserve fidelity at all listening levels. > >> This is impossible. > >> As soon as you attenuate the signal, you lose low order bits. About > one > >> bit per 6dB. > >> > >> Even if you had 24 bits of signal (which is unlikely) when you turn > it > >> down by 12dB, you have no more than 22 bits of information. You can > use > >> a digital attenuator, or a voltage divider or goat cheese, the > >> information is lost. > > > > There was a "not" before want to. > > it makes zero difference if you use digital or analogue attenuation. > You lose signal when you cut the gain. > > In simple terms, turn down the volume, lose fidelity. > > -- > Pat Farrell > http://www.pfarrell.com/
I guess more clarity is in order. Case 1: For 16 bit recordings, 8 bits of 0 are padded in the TP/SB to produce a 24 bit word. These extra bits have no information, but shift the applitude up by 8 bits of depth. These are 0's -- so you can truncate them with digital attenuation to the point where you are at the original 16 without any possibility of losing digital music information. case 2) The point made earlier, is if you truly had a 24 bit recording, you cannot do that without the possibility of degrading the digital signal. The fact that noise floor in the analog domain is much higher than needed to reproduce 24 bits is another matter -- and important as well. But regardless the information is gone in this case. I do think we are saying the same thing.. -- jt25741 SB3->AR Masters Coax -> PS Audio DLIII -> Cardas Golden Reference XLR -> Sim Audio P-5 -> Cardas Golden Reference XLR -> Sim Audio W-5 -> Cardas Golden Reference Hi-Mid,PS Audio Xstream Plus Low-> Magnepan 3.6R ------------------------------------------------------------------------ jt25741's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8645 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42698 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
