20 bit players vs. 24 bit players

Extra bits come from digital filtering - pretty much useless information. Sonic benefit is, as Shardone explained already, improved filtering with possibility of reduced jitter. Improved more accurate filtering in digital filters gives smoother more coherent sound while reduced jitter lowers noise floor.

I would not put too much attention to number of bits or specifications in general.

The difference between 16 and 20 bit quantization is an expansion of dynamic range, as well as increased low-level detail resolution. 20 bit resolution actually represents the state-of-the-art with regards to digital audio reproduction. Try some XRCD material to experience 20 bit resolution on your Redbook player. Some DACs have 24 bit capacity, but the last 4 bits aren't precise enough to encode music accurately. Some advertisers claim 24 bit resolution as a marketing ploy. The short version: There is no sonic advantage between 20 and 24 bit(yet).

To look at these D/A converter chipsets (from just their bit quantization i.e. 16, 20, 24 bits) is a VERY simplistic way of understanding these converter types. Generally speaking, the 24 bit chipsets will have the latest greatest internal noise shaping architecture as well as other advancements that chipset manufacturers develop and implement as they release new chipsets to the marketplace year over year....and this is just the tip of the iceberg of what is within a D/A chipset! The fact that 6 different manufacturers' 16 bit D/A chipsets can all sound very different proves that it's much more than just looking at the bit quantization label. Typically, with chipset development, sonic progress moves forward with the latest advancements in D/A chipsets. Each manufacturing chipset company attempts to attain greater S.N ratios and other "tech measurables" with proprietary exotic architecture within (these are VERY complicated pieces of silicon with MANY DIFFERENT ways to achieve the end results.) Whether it be Wolfson or Burr Brown or Analog Devices or AKM or a slew of other chipset offerings, each has it's own unique proprietary method of achieving it's way to handle the digital data and convert in on silicon to an analog voltage or current output. Since there is a boatload of money tied up in creating a new chipset alone, the later generation chipsets are almost always a higher bit rate of 24 or even higher bit quantization levels. Many of these D/A chipsets are made to handle a slew of applications in many marketplaces - from home theater players to commercial music studio equipment and then other industries altogether like aerospace to you name it (we high end audio guys are just a drop in the bucket with single digit percentage marketshare comparably). Again though, the quantization rate alone will not necessarily give you a good measure of a D/A chipset's true sonic capability. If it was only it was this simple ;-)

Thanks for the responce Ehider..Your right if it was only this simple.

Quote:

"Shardone explained already, improved filtering with possibility of reduced jitter. Improved more accurate filtering in digital filters gives smoother more coherent sound while reduced jitter lowers noise floor."

This is true.
My Arcam CD192, with the four Wolfson dac's and upsampling sounds head and shoulders better than the NAD C542 I had owned,and liked.