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Analog vs Digital
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| IpLaYWiTLiGhTs |
I tried searching the forums but didn't come up with anything succesful (I always have trouble finding things).
Anyways, feel like doing some reading/research. Anyone know links that have information or compare analog vs digital? I'm not talking about preference, but more of the solid information such as sound quality.
Thanks :) |
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| IpLaYWiTLiGhTs |
I only see opinions and preferences in that thread.
Any hard statisitcal facts on which has better sound quality? |
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| Stu Cox |
| quote: | Originally posted by IpLaYWiTLiGhTs
I'm not talking about preference, but more of the solid information such as sound quality. |
Sound quality can be very much down to preference itself... A lot of people prefer the clean sound of a CD to the warm, slightly distorted sound of vinyl and vice versa. |
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| Trance Nutter |
how do you measure sound quality?
honest question. |
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| Stu Cox |
| quote: | Originally posted by IpLaYWiTLiGhTs
Bitrate? |
Analogue signals don't have a bitrate, so that can't be used to compare.
*A bit more depth into your original question...*
Technically, analogue sources can be "perfect" quality, if no noise is present. However, there's always noise and recording defects (scratches, crackles and dust etc on a vinyl pressing for example).
Digital recordings quantise the sound ("round" the signal to fixed values in both time and amplitude), so in this sense lose quality, but are much less susceptible to the effects of noise and smoothing can be used to get the signal nearer to the original analogue signal.
So basically it's just not as simple as one being better quality than the other, it depends on the sample rate and sample depth of the digital recording (how accurate the quantisation is) and how much noise and distortion is present in the analogue signal. |
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| Stu Cox |
| quote: | Originally posted by Trance Nutter
how do you measure sound quality?
honest question. |
I suppose the intuitive answer to that would be to measure the likeness of a transmitted signal (i.e. the signal after it's been transmitted through a medium in either analogue or digital format) to the original signal
Those who know about signal processing will know that using a cross-correlation function is one way to do this. |
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| IpLaYWiTLiGhTs |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stu Cox
Analogue signals don't have a bitrate, so that can't be used to compare.
*A bit more depth into your original question...*
Technically, analogue sources can be "perfect" quality, if no noise is present. However, there's always noise and recording defects (scratches, crackles and dust etc on a vinyl pressing for example).
Digital recordings quantise the sound ("round" the signal to fixed values in both time and amplitude), so in this sense lose quality, but are much less susceptible to the effects of noise and smoothing can be used to get the signal nearer to the original analogue signal.
So basically it's just not as simple as one being better quality than the other, it depends on the sample rate and sample depth of the digital recording (how accurate the quantisation is) and how much noise and distortion is present in the analogue signal. |
This is what I'm looking for, thank you!
I'd like to see readings that explain this and go more depth into it.
Really new to this stuff, I want to learn... |
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| OMNIFEX |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stu Cox
So basically it's just not as simple as one being better quality than the other, it depends on the sample rate and sample depth of the digital recording (how accurate the quantisation is) and how much noise and distortion is present in the analogue signal. |
It also depends on a person's hearing, and how well they can determine distortion from what's not distortion. At what degree have they ever heard quality recordings, and what was the program in question when they drew to this conclusion.
Sound is too subjective why there is no golden rule of thumb on what's best.
Bottomline. Your ears are the deciding factor, and more people will trust their ears over any research if their ears don't agree with the end result. |
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| andydavey |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stu Cox
using a cross-correlation function is one way to do this |
Beautiful Stu, Eric would be proud.
;) |
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