Sound quality

[mnaines 10+ year member]

Grn-eyed devil, I am a computer whiz kid, and I know exactly what I am talking about when I mention this stuff. On computer soundcards, the 3.5mm outputs are analog outputs with 16-bit/48kHz sampling rates, while the higher-end fiber optic outputs have a sampling rate of 24-bit/96kHz. Let's step away from that for a second. An analog audio signal is usually a 2.4GHz RF signal, while a digital signal is usually a beam of Infrared energy, which can run anywhere between 300GHz and 1,000THz. There are two purposes for IR, one is to detect heat (high-frequency IR) and the other is to amplify very low existing light (low-frequency IR). Most digital audio signals are low-frequency IR signals between 300GHz and 10THz. The human ear can detect frequencies between 20Hz and 20kHz, while the human eye can detect frequencies between 600THz and 900THz, which is high-frequency IR, not ultraviolet. Ultraviolet is 1,000THz to 120,000THz. Since the digital signal is transmitted as a beam of light, it is at a much higher wavelength, and therefore a much cleaner signal than an RF signal. The downside to smaller wavelengths (higher frequencies) is more power is needed to transmit the higher frequency signal to the same distance. An uncooled IR transmitter has at best 25 feet maximum range @ 12V, while an RF transmitter can get up to 1,000 feet or more with 12V. 2.4GHz is microwave radiation, and microwaves cook things by sending that 2.4GHz wavelength into the material, which causes the material to vibrate and heat up. The same thing happens to the human body when it is exposed to microwave radiation, which is why there are regulations on the use of RF devices like cell phones, cordless phones, or wi-fi cards. If you want an idea of just how dangerous a 2.4GHz signal is, stand in front of a large radar dish while it is transmitting and watch what happens.

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

My ears are very sensitive, and I can pick up on audio details that would otherwise be inaudible to everyone else. Knowing that, I am going to inform you now that I cannot tell the difference between a 64kbps ATRAC3plus file and an actual store-bought CD with the same song.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/hilarious.gif.02a037aad04aa96f19982b298a3d70a8.gif

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

....and everyone knows an all-digital signal is much better quality than an all-analog signal.

!!!

Lol!! Yeah you are totally right man. If a Grand Piano put out an all analog signal it would sound like ***. Good thing those Steinways are digital! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif

 

[GrnEydDvl 10+ year member]

Grn-eyed devil, I am a computer whiz kid.

Self-proclaimed. I bet you are 12 years old with a text book in your lap. You are a master of spouting specifications.

And you are wrong.

And now people are starting to laugh. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Here let me spit some real numbers here so we might have some slim chance of staying on topic here....

I took this from Harry F. Olson's "Music, Physics and Engineering"

- The human ear all comes down to the cochlea, which is curled around like a snail shell. Inside of the cochlea, which is about 35mm long (3.5cm is pretty long to fit in such a small space), there are around 4,000 nerve fibers that connect the cochlea to the brain. There are about 5 cilia, little hairs that are agitated by the basilar membrane's vibrations, per nerve ending. That gives you about 20,000 cilia from birth.

Now the thing is, these cilia are not digital-like on/off switches. Each of the 20,000 hairs can be stimulated a lot, a little, and anywhere in between. This of course is where we are able to hear dynamics. You can consciously or subconsciously "hear" the harmonics of different instruments. A 500hz tone in a guitar sounds like a 500hz tone from a guitar; not a 500hz tone from a cello. How does this happen? A guitar and cello NEVER make a PURE 500hz tone, there are hundreds of resonant peaks that the individual instruments create..... this is where SQ comes in. To have excellent SQ, you must be able to accurately re-produce these harmonics and have a sufficiently low noise floor to bring them out. There is no question that compression of music files "kills" these subtle imprints. Yes you still get the beat, rhythm, dynamics, but you lose some of the air and life in the music.

 

[supa_c 5,000+ posts]

I have platinum ears, i can hear the slightest hint of distortion.

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

I didn't want to go here, but since everyone is just laughing at you I'll go ahead and say it. You came on here asking if your sony system had good SQ based soley on some specs. Please don't try to pretend to be some golden eared engineer.

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

I lol'd.

nG

 

[ss3079 5,000+ posts]

I lol'd.
nG

As did I.

To say that you can "pick up on audio details" that are inaudible to everyone else is a little ... interesting.

 

[supa_c 5,000+ posts]

Anyone else notice that just about every single post my mnaines has been edited

 

[IamDeMan 5,000+ posts]

My ears are very sensitive, and I can pick up on audio details that would otherwise be inaudible to everyone else. Knowing that, I am going to inform you now that I cannot tell the difference between a 64kbps ATRAC3plus file and an actual store-bought CD with the same song. There is more to the sound quality than the level of compression or the type of compression. The device or program used to encode the file is a major factor, as is the hardware (headphones, speakers, etc.), and the type of connection used (analog speaker cables or digital fiber optic cables). That being said, the numbers game does come into play here. If the head unit or the speakers do not reproduce the entire human audible range (10Hz to 30kHz @ a maximum 92dB sensitivity), then they cannot accurately reproduce the quality of the original source. And a little bit of advice on the human audible range: As humans get older, the frequency range at which they can hear gets smaller and the sensitivity of the ear drops. The human ear can pick up a 10Hz signal, although it is felt as vibrations instead of heard as an audible signal. That feeling of a drumstick beating on the eardrum is the 10Hz "bumps" hitting the eardrum

I truly felt my self get dumber reading this.

I cannot tell the difference between a 64kbps ATRAC3plus file and an actual store-bought CD with the same song.

I sure hope you are kidding here. There is a monumental difference audibly between the 2.

 

[CBFryman2 5,000+ posts]

I LOL'd at this thread.

 

[mnaines 10+ year member]

I hope you guys aren't going to resort to flaming or any of that stuff. I do have supersensitive hearing, and I cannot tell the difference between a store-bought CD and 64kbps ATRAC3plus. I run Sony's SonicStage Digital Music Manager for all my music, and with SonicStage, ATRAC3plus can compress a CD to 1/22 its normal size without losing any of the original source quality. The only two ATRAC3plus encoders Sony supports are SonicStage V2.0 or better and SonicStage Simple Burner V1.0 or better. Those are the only burners that will allow ATRAC3plus CDs to be read by external CD players. 64kbps ATRAC3plus and 64kbps ATRAC Advanced Lossless are the two formats I use on my playlist, and I can't tell the difference between them and a store-bought CD.

 

[mnaines 10+ year member]

Quit flaming my posts. You guys do not know me well enough to make an accurate judgement on me, so back off and quit assuming that everyone's hearing is the same. I'm 22, and I have autism. Autism causes people's senses to become extremely acute and aware of what is going on around them, and people with autism have higher-than-average IQs.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

I do have supersensitive hearing,

Just as you are a self-proclaimed "computer whiz kid" //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

What next, are you also the Karate Kid?