The Optimal Sample Rate for Quality Audio

[Sumflow]

See why many professional engineers still work at 96kHz years after 192kHz became available.

"An examination of converter IC data sheets will reveal that virtually all audio converter ICs deliver their peak performance near 96 kHz. The 4x (176.4 kHz and 192 kHz) mode delivers poorer performance in many respects. In most cases, noise, distortion, pass-band ripple, stop-band attenuation and other key performance measurements are significantly better in the 2X (88.2 kHz and 96 kHz) mode of operation.

 

Every A/D and D/A conversion IC that we have tested performs better at 96 kHz than at 192 kHz. In most cases THD+N, SNR, passband ripple, and stopband attenuation are all poorer at 192 kHz than at 96 kHz. Based upon these tests, I am not surprised that there is not yet any conclusive evidence that 192 kHz is better than 96 kHz. Given the current state of the art, 192 kHz should sound poorer than 96 kHz. 192 kHz provides additional bandwidth between 48 kHz and 96 kHz but there is no real evidence that this is useful given the limitations of our microphones, speakers, and hearing. 192 kHz adds useless bandwidth while decreasing performance."

 

From what Converter Manufacturers Don’t Want You to Know! http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/discuss/sites/default/files/Upsampling-to-110kHz.pdf

[Sumflow]

The Simple fact is many of us, oh I don't know. Maybe the 40% of people who do NOT live in urban areas. Most of us only get one shot at stuff. We do not have an array of things delivered to us, play with them and send them back. Like children in a sandbox trying out toys.

I'd be curious to hear from any of them if they picked their playback system without listening to it... Yet I haven't met anyone who will say outright that they picked their without audition of any of the components and did not listen at all until the system was assembled. (I'd also be very curious to hear such a system.)

Aloha Berry, McLearn sells out a fleet of cars before any are delivered. We do not have an array of things available for us to test, any more than test drive every car that was ever made before we become wedded to a brand. Pretty much, we read all this B.S. about what things we sound, or drive like. We are forced to buy it, and we be stuck with it for many years.

We might make adjustments if we can afford it, but I think you will find in the real world most of us do not get to sample the material things that we own before it is to late to reasonably turn them back in. We have no way to test the equipment or the outlandish claims of Madison avenue advertising. I have bought cars before they were released. There was nothing to compare them with.

 

It is the same with pre-orders on audio equipment. "Buy on spec, shall be the whole of the law." So let me make this clear. I picked my playback system without listening to it. Most of the things, material, objects that we buy are based only on the specifications, without audition of any of the components, and were not listened to at all until the system was assembled at home (or on stage).

 

I asked Roger McQuinn about this at the Troubadour in California one night when he got back from playing Banjo up at Bob Dylan's house up in the canyon. He told me he just walked into a McIntosh store and bought a complete system and had it delivered to his house. Player, pre-amp speakers the whole bit. My dad ordered tons of cars before they came out. Do you think a test drive in a car that you will have for many years has any real meaning. I laugh at people taking test drives. Do you need a test drive to own a Porsche or a Ferrari?

 

No you put you money down wait forever as time will stretch like you are sitting on a hot stove, and as long as it is up to specs, specs that you may have only heard about. You will be happy.

 

 

I don't believe city people even live in a place where they can crank the volume up like I listen to it in the country. What do you know about sound. Neil Young plays in a Barn. You take a 60x40 concert stage and try to reproduce it in a closet. Just like you drive your 200-mph Shelby's and live with short spurts in the realm of the densely packed.

 

So let me make this clear I picked my playback system without listening to it. I bought my Porsche without driving it. I have gotten past the point of no return with chicks based only on her Specs.

 

How could anyone hear a sound system before they set it up?

 

It is not even possible, there are two many variables. The material, the room, the harmonicas of everything including the comfortableness of the listener. Once things settle in they do not sound the same, anymore than the twelfth night feels like the first time. I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in all of my life. That people listen to there playback system before they bought it.

[Sumflow]

Not everybody lives near a city.

I've used the Cable Company many times and find their service to be outstanding.

I think only 3% of consumers will take stuff back. It implies that they made a mistake. People have other priorities. It is not that big a deal. Audio shows only go to population centers (cities). If the manufactures only sold to people who came to audio shows to hear there stuff, how long do you think they would stay in business?

 

Percentage wise nobody knows what there sound system will sound like before they buy it. It can take half a century to put a good sound system together, how can a person hear that before they bring it home?

 

 

[Sumflow]

[video=youtube_share;aoO2q8g7I88]

A more detailed picture may require more pixels, but more audio detail does NOT require more samples. There is an “electronic tool” (filter) that enables recovering ALL of the audio from a limited number of samples.

I think he makes that point here. It is not the sampling that is important so much as increasing the bit-rate.