From: Simon Barnes
> The original CD is coded 16 bit, so any bits added by
> the player have been made up by guessology.
I recall that earlier in CD technology timeline, one statistic often quoted
in the reviews was low-level linearity. It was an audible problem that DACs
had because of their (I presume) inherent inaccuracies.
The *solution* was to run a higher bitlevel so that the inaccurate least
significant bits were stripped before output. That is, an 18 bit DAC was
used and the 'top' 16 bits did all the work. Most of the errors occurred in
the 'bottom' two bits which were not used in the audible output anyway so it
was a huge boost in the accuracy of the output signal.
For all intents and purposes, it solved the problem of low-level linearity
errors in the 16 bit output.
I don't know if this is still the reasoning behind the higher bitrate DACs
on some MD machines but if it is, it's *not* just a numbers war. Quiet
passages did enjoy an audible improvement.
Rick.
-----
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.alienshore.com/
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word
"unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
