Can an audible difference be heard between 24-bit and 32-bit processing? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Alexander]

Some chips are proprietary such as Yamaha's 32-bit processing in their receivers, there's HK's use of Cirrus 32-bit chips, and yet others employ 3 separate 32-bit chips such as Sony ES. Is there a difference that affects the sound between these different chipsets, or does it all boil down to the more features you have (DDEX, DTS-ES, DTS:Neo, PLII, L7...), the more processing power you'll need? Does this explain Sony ES use of 3 separate 32-bit chips? And how does it benefit from 24-bit?

 

[martyj]

I believe those bits above around 20 are called marketing chips and you can't hear the difference.

 

[Todd Hochard]

Don't confuse the xx-bit processing with xx-bit DACs. More bits in the processor generally means faster processing, which means the ability to add more features without dropouts here and there.

So, based on the number of bits in the DSP engine alone, assuming both units did not drop sound, there should be no sonic difference.

Nobody is running 32-bit DACs, yet. 24-bits is top-of-the-line at this point. The big advantage of more bits in the DACs is the lowering of the noise floor.

Todd

 

[ling_w]

Some processors has internal precision that is higher than what is available for input and output. Units like the Meridian operates internally in 48 bits to accomondate any types of signal processing in which the LSB would be truncated.