2. tech-talk
  3. 1136827118

Does DITHER explain Analog vs Digital preference?

I came across a CD Digital track with a synthetic added hiss and pop like a turntable. It was added by the sound engineer for "effect", however, it still sounded remarkably good. The hiss and crackle background noise seemed to make the music stand out even further than usual and gives it a life-like real world feel. This may be analogous to a contrasting frame around artwork that enhances the colors within the painting/photo.

I looked through my collection and I have at least a dozen CD tracks, usually pop music, mixed with intentionaly added wideband background noise. These all sounded good... although the higher background noise can be annoying if you allow yourself to focus on it.

This lead me to thinking about how a significant number of audiophiles prefer Vinyl or Analog sources over Digital: Would the Analog audiophile enjoy these "noisy" CD's more than a conventional CD mix with a very low noise floor?

Following this logic leads to a possible explanation for some peoples strong preference of noisy Analog over the technology of Digital.

Could it all be in the DITHER?

In Digital signal processing a technique called "dithering" is used to improve the accuracy of the signal. The idea is simple....a low level of high frequency noise is added in order to improve the accuracy of the conversion of the primary signal. The high frequency noise, which is outside the audible band, is later filtered out in the processing chain, leaving only the more accurately converted primary signal.

It seems plausible that a small level of background noise might actualy raise the ability of listeners to perceive certain low level details within the music. Without this added noise then some of the low level detail simply falls below a threshold of human perception and goes unnoticed. In an analogy to Digital processing, the human brain might actually extract the low level detail from the noise by performing the final processing step of stripping out the wideband noise; the listener simply "focusses" on the music.
128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xshadorne

Showing 1 response by newmanoc

newmanoc
295 posts
 
"Would the Analog audiophile enjoy these "noisy" CD's more than a conventional CD mix with a very low noise floor?"

I don't think so. Those of us with analog preferences much prefer quiet records to noisy ones. Analog preference has to do with more actual music being stored on and retrievable from a vinyl groove than from a collection of digital pits on a Redbook CD, and to a lesser degree, perhaps the aesthetics involved. (If you disagree with me about the more music being retrievable thing, no sweat. I don't think we want to do the digital/vinyl debate again. I like both, and use them for different sorts of listening.)
More to discover