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

@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.

How different is DSP room correction from digital recording and processing used for most LPs?  Sound in the room, as Mapman noted, is always analog and it only matters if you enjoy it.

It’s like virginity.  You can only lose it once.  Once anything goes into the digital domain, it’s digital 

@maam522a  the use of DSP in room adjustments, subwoofer integration, etc.... If I use DSP as a filter to split off my subs is my system no longer analog???

To use signal processing "in room adjustments" for main speakers? Then you've entered the digital domain. Dual output analog preampfification will allow for two discrete analog music and desirably processed low frequency systems. 

-3dB subwoofers require standing wave mode positioning for proper room integration. With the exception of a distributed bass array no amount of signal processing and amplifier power can properly correct a subwoofers incorrect room position. 

Without an industry standard for subwoofer DSP the level of musical integration with speakers in the analog domain can vary quite dramatically. Despite these inequities many in this hobby believe they have attained perfect speaker integration. Meh, it's all good.