All I can figure is we're mixing up the raw audio data rate and total data rate including things like subcode, error correction, etc.
The goal is to restore the data which become lost in the recording process
That is what DVD-A & SACD are for, not DSPs--no brickwall filter at 22kHz and more of the quality that was originally captured in the studio(provided they used the right equipment).
In a Home system, juicing up Red Book or other limited formats with DSP's is one option, but it can't hold a candle to the quality that is already inherent with the two high-rez formats on the market. If one wants to use DSPs to spice up a CD that was poorly recorded then I say go for it(although make sure that speaker placement and/or the room isn't the problem).
For computer sound the hardware and the software are most often both limiting factors, so using DSPs to spice things up can be beneficial, IMO, but it's a seperate issue from a Home Theater/Music system.
Ric P.,
Isn't your use of the TDS202 similiar to what Manuel is trying to acheive by using DSPs--that is, to add some ambience to the recordings?
DJ
Isn't your use of the TDS202 similiar to what Manuel is trying to acheive by using DSPs--that is, to add some ambience to the recordings?
Good question. But it's not really the same thing. The TDS202 is an analog device firstly, it applies a simple harmonic effect to an analog signal. In fact the TDS202 is much more akin to using a tubed pre-amp than any sort of digital manipulation of the incoming signal.
I've yet to see or hear any DSP mode that doesn't affect the signal for the worse (excluding of course things like 5 and 7 channel stereo, which really aren't DSP modes in the true sense of the term). There's no way that a piece of silicon can know what the original performance included, so therefore there is no way for it to restore anything. All it can do is apply a pre-determined digtial algorithm to a digital sample in a hope that it will apply a pleasing sound. More often than not it fails, and fails badly.
Tubes and the TDS202 on the other hand are adding harmonic overtones to an analog signal, which is something that is usually lost in the transformation to digital. The issue is that you cannot simulate what tubes or the TDS202 do digitally, they are inherently an analog process.
All I can figure is we're mixing up the raw audio data rate and total data rate including things like subcode, error correction, etc
Not really. I misread your 150KBs to be 150kbps because we typically do not use the KB identifier. When data rates get up over 1Mbps it is customary to describe it in terms of Mbps.
Anyway, the PCM audio data rate of a CD is 176.4KBps or 1.4112Mbps
So, now I see what you were saying. You were saying that a 24/96 digital master, run through some sort of "psychoacoustic" processing to reduce the data rate to ~ 1.4112Mbps would sound good. You know what? You're absolutely right. You know what else? This is virtually exactly how every CD is produced today.
An analog master is captured at 24/96 or 24/192, or an existing digital master of that rate is taken, and then it is run through one of several systems. Sony has SBM (Super Bit Mapping) which reduces a 20 or 24 bit PCM master (or even a DSD master) to the 16 bits needed for PCM. There is also the db Technologies Model 3000 dithering processor that accomplishes the same thing.
When they make a 16/44 CD from a 24/96 master, they don't just toss the extra bits and samples, they use a dithering station to reduce the data rate while retaining the most significant data to the waveform. This too, is a form of "psychoacoustic" processing and is how almost every CD is produced today.
Theoretically, you can restore the information above the 22Khz range with this technology which is part of the arsenal of tools in the DSP arena.
Theoretically being the key term there. It is extraordinarily difficult to simulate analog harmonics in a digital algorithm. I've never heard it done properly...never.
Perhaps you can tell us exactly which DSP modes you are referring to Manuel? Which Brand of processor/receiver and which exact mode?
Perhaps you can tell us exactly which DSP modes you are referring to Manuel? Which Brand of processor/receiver and which exact mode?
The original post was referring to Winamp (Windows MP3 player) plug-ins.
Ryan