Is your system still Analog if you use any form of DSP?


I see recommendations for the use of DSP in room adjustments, subwoofer integration, etc.... If I use DSP as a filter to split off my subs and reduce the load on my mains, is my system no longer analog???

maam522a

The simplest analogy is anything done that requires software/firmware is considered digital,  That includes DSP that provide crossovers, time delay, filters, etc.  Anything manipulated or changed outside of software, done purely by electronic components (hardware, transistors, capacitors resistors, etc)), is considered analog.

Both forms have pros and cons.  Let your ears be the judge.

I used to have this argument with Mijostyn who uses tube driven ESLs with subwoofers but does RIAA, DSP, and crossover in the digital domain. In the end it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. (Was talking about the movie “Casablanca” last night. Bogart uses that metaphor in explaining to Ingrid Bergman that she must escape with her husband rather than to stay behind in Casablanca.)

Not to be dismissive, but the “D” in DSP is for “digital”, so if your signal goes through a DSP filter, it had been digitized.  Most of the media we play has been digitized.  To be all analog you need to be playing vinyl from before 1980 unless you have access to open reel tapes from back then. Most remastered versions of favorite LPs have been digitized, radio stations digitize, etc. etc.  Do not sweat it!

@neonknight 

The horror! I use a Trinov preamp that has room measurement and correction. All source components travel through the preamp so are subject to its machinations. I am a heretic! 

Not as far as I am concerned.

I am digital from phono stage to crossovers.

 

 

@maam522a 

If I use DSP as a filter to split off my subs and reduce the load on my mains, is my system no longer analog???"

I have two answers:

1) My "literal" answer is no.  No matter how many digital hops / boxes you have, a stereo must have analog components to provide voltage to the speakers.  As such, there are analog boxes in your stereo.  So technically you cannot deem your stereo as no longer analog.

2) If your question accidentally omitted the adverb "only" (as in "no longer only analog"), then my literal answer is yes.

As soon as a part of your song is processed via a digital signal processor (DSP), at that crossroad it became digital.  DSP is digital.  Use it, and you have a digital component to your stereo.