[Jukebox-list] Audio question

[David Breneman]

--- Ray Finch <babylon at swcp.com> wrote:


> There was some mention before of digitally reproduced sound not
> being as 
> good because it is sampled and that the tube amps have a "warm"
> sound to 
> them.  I have heard these arguments before...

> The "warm" sound of a tube amp is not anything that I have ever
> been able to notice. 


The so called "warm" or (gag!) "phat" sound of tube amps
primarily  expresses itself in distortion.  When overdriven,
tube amps tend to distort br producing harmonics.  Transistor
amps tend to distort by clipping.  If you never drive your
amp to distortion there is very little difference in the
sound.  As far as sampling goes, the notion that analogue
media have "limitless" frequency response is pur snake oil.
CDs top out at 20 kHz, which most people over 20 can't
hear.  My hearing tops out at about 18+ kHz, and 15 kHz
isn't uncommon.  Most LP albums contain nothing above
about 17-18 kHz.


> In similar way digitally produced audio (CD, MP3, etc.) is not 100%
> perfect either.  Yes, technically speaking, it is true that by
> using 
> digital sampling extremely minute portions of the audio are lost. 
> But 
> when we are talking about CD quality digital audio, the reality is
> that 
> what is lost is not anything that most human beings can discern.


Be careful not to lump sampling rate in with lossy compression.
Much music in mp3 format sounds wretched because of the loss
and artifacts caused by compression.  CDs aren't "perfect sound
forever" as they were touted in the 80s, but lossy compression
can truly be sound that sucks for an eternity.


David Breneman         david_breneman at yahoo.com


       
____________________________________________________________________________________
Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of spyware protection.
http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/norton/index.php