Learned something new today and it isn't good.


I have been in this crazy hobby for over five decades and thought I knew most of the basic information regarding audio quality.

That was before this morning.

Today I learned about the practise of applying "pre-emphasis" to CDs that was around during the late '70's and early '80's. Apparently this practise was developed as a way of reducing the signal to noise in digital audio. The problem is this was a two-part process and required the CD player to have a "de-emphasis" capability to allow the disk to play properly. Without the application of de-emphasis, cd's would sound "bright".

My question would be, "Does everyone else know about this?"

If you do, "How do you deal with it?"

I still listen to CDs and this is not something I need in my life.

128x128tony1954

Showing 1 response by kingsleuy

I have not played a CD disk that I would have suspected Not having such de-emphasis.  Like I hear playing a record without RIAA de-emphasis.  Or Dolby encoded tapes.  It's not broken.  You don't have to deal with it.