linuxaudio.org

On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 12:39:17PM -0500, Thomas Vecchione wrote:

quoted text
> And for the record, the basic reasoning for what I said is simple, and has

> existed for quite some time, that 44.1kHz is capable of containing more

> than the entire human hearing range of an undamaged ear (Reproducing all

> frequencies up to just above 22k).

Yeah, but what about harmonics? For truly PRO work, analog should be

used. CD's came out as the poor mans quality stereo, it was a compromise

for high quality vinyl. Just as McDonalds is a poor compromise for a

quality restaurant. But with the proliferation of advertising, huge

product selection, the rising cost of the real quality goods; digital

and McDonalds soon became the norm.
I believe it was Shannon's law which basically stated that the sampling

frequency should be twice as high as the highest frequency (or

bandwidth, if the lowest is zero). This was used in telecomunications

where a 4kHz (actually 3.4kHz but usually rounded off to 4kHz) bandwidth was

considered to be ample to convey human speech at a quality which was

considered acceptable. Therefore, an 8kHz sample rate was used.
I believe the same reasoning was used when they started fabricating CDs.
In all fairness, if the source of the music is digital, then digital

mastering throughout the whole process is acceptable (the DDD) on the

cover of the CD usually (used to?) indicates this. Others are AAD and

ADD, where the A stands for analog.
So, consider a musician playing a Stradivarius violin. You'd want to be

able to reproduce all the tonal richness, and harmonics during the

recording phase. Some people say the ear can't hear above a certain

frequency anyway, so it doesn't matter whereas there are others who can

pick the difference between a Stradivarius violin and an "ordinary"

violin.
I also understand that vinyl is now increasingly (very slowly though)

becoming the preferred medium for listening to music.
Remember: If you sample at an infinite frequency you have analog, and

isn't the idea of quality digital to have a high sample rate.
--

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people

who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the

oppressing." --- Malcolm X

_______________________________________________

Linux-audio-user mailing list

Linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org

http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user