Category Archives: Codecs

‘can theoretically reach 100,000 Hz’

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Stephen Dawson

Here’s something I’d completely forgotten about, or perhaps never known. The ‘Scarlett Book’ for SACD recommended that the high resolution audio be low pass filtered at 50kHz (@-3dB). I was reminded/informed of this by the datasheet for the Cirrus Logic … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs, Digital Audio | 2 Comments

The Magic of Dither

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Stephen Dawson

(I have written an article for Australian HI-FI suggesting that a good way to start to understand the differences between 16 and 24 bit audio is to listen to the differences between 8 bit and 16 bit audio. To that … Continue reading →

Posted in Codecs, Digital Audio, How Things Work | 1 Comment

Digital Show and Tell

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Stephen Dawson

Anyone who is interested in understanding any of the nuts and bolts of digital audio will appreciate this video. Anyone who wants to have any kind of informed opinion about how digital audio sounds, its merits and limitations Unnecessary nervous … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs | 5 Comments

Another nail in the 24 bit audio coffin

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Stephen Dawson

24 bit audio resolution is vital in modern digital recording. And in mixing. And in processing. But it’s increasingly looking pointless in music delivery at the consumer level. I’ve previously reported on the inability of listeners to distinguish between high … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs, Imperfect perception | Leave a comment

Is digital inferior to analogue audio?

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Stephen Dawson

Linn Products is a very famous UK high fidelity equipment firm. It really came to prominence in the 1970s in making the argument that the turntable had been overlooked as a critical component in the playback chain. It’s contribution at … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs, Imperfect perception, Testing | 3 Comments

[Re-post] Crushing Because They Can

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

[This is a repost of the original item. It’s unchanged, except for this intro. The reason for reposting it (and deleting the original) is that the original has attracted over 20 ,000 attempted spam comments. I’m hoping this action will … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs, Music | Leave a comment

Slightly better than a CD

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve been playing with NAS drives lately, focusing on their abilities as music servers. That prompted me to see if I could get some of my high resolution music into a usable form. And indeed you can! Some of it, … Continue reading →

Posted in CD, Codecs, DVD, Music | Leave a comment

Another view: high res audio is a waste

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

If you want to know lots about how digital audio works, and a pretty damned convincing explanation as to why high resolution audio (24 bit, up to 192kHz sampling) is a waste, I can’t recommend too highly this piece from … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs | 2 Comments

Why do they do it?

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

I was looking for fine music — multichannel if possible — to listen to earlier today. But I didn’t want to switch on the projector or a TV to navigate through menus, so that ruled out (sort of) DVD Audio. … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs, Music | 3 Comments

Animated JPEG?

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

This is weird: Just a cute picture picture of a dog and a kid Kauf von Amoxil , right? Absolutely, animated and all. But check out the file name extension: *.jpg. An animated JPEG? Google that and you’ll find lots … Continue reading →

Posted in Codecs, Computer | 3 Comments