[BC] What 'HD' Means

[Robertm]

This is all very dependent on the end design criteria and the performance expected. Digital in the studio makes a lot of sense since there are just fewer things to go wrong. Long term stability is another important factor. 24/96 is commonly available in equipment these days without a price penalty. Digital audio processors out perform their analog predecessors by a wide margin and a digital StL transmission path eliminates the various problems associated different analog approaches. Digitally modulated analog transmitters offer stability, improved efficiency and by reducing distortion, noise, IPM and other defects puts more of the signal in the channel carrying the desired content. 

 
stations are being turned off and the ones that aren't are serving parts of the world that depends on low tech for reception. The concept back in the early 90s was that receiver technology would evolve and, in part, would fill the marketplace over the replacement cycle. But people are not really buying radios anymore and electronics outlets are giving them little, if any shelf space. In cars there is now the competition for dashboard space and considering the cost of building hardware, those radios should become SDR. The complete reasoning is the subject of a separate discussion. 

Regarding the CD vs Vinyl discussion, while it is one for the gold plated monster cable affectionados to argue, I think the biggest real difference is that Vinyl required compensation for RIAA pre-emphasis while remastered CDs could be mastered to 0DBFS at every frequency. Fortunately, CDs like radios are yesterday's news so hopefully that whole problem just fades away. 


On Jul 7, 2013, at 4:29 PM, Donald Chester <k4kyv at hotmail.com> wrote:

>With audio, the best comparison would perhaps be the range of uniform frequency response. But analogue FM and AM at least theoretically can faithfully reproduce everything within the range of human hearing, if a good enough microphone is used and all links in the audio chain from mic preamp to modulated stage are of sufficient design, and the receiver is capable of fully exploiting the qualities of the transmitted signal. Percent distortion would be factor, but the digital process has no inherent advantage over analogue, just as in the case of colour quality in photographic images. Dynamic range, maybe. That's the most obvious improvement with a CD over vinyl, in addition to lack of surface noise. But many listeners insist that a good quality vinyl disc in pristine condition "sounds better" than a CD, despite the greater dynamic range of the latter. This may be justified on the basis that the outcome of the digital process is at best an approximation of the original analogue!