Errors of Mis-Placed Precision in Audiophility

[esldude]

32 bit DACs?  SOTA electronics can manage maybe 130 db or more often a good 120 db (20-21 bits).  If you wish to listen to music as loud as 120 db, you'll have noise 10 db below the hearing threshold in rough terms.  So instead of the 144 db that can be addressed by 24 bits we need 32 bit DACs that could address 192 db, except of course no electronics are anywhere close to that quiet.  What is the point? Oh, and should I mention much music has less dynamic range than ever in the history of recorded music.  

 

Sample rates above 96 khz?  768 khz DACs are starting to be almost common (384 khz already is not unusual).  Why the increasingly common 384 khz rates and now 768 khz rates when devices to record at those numbers are sparse?

 

Somewhat similar to megapixel wars in cameras.  I would settle for 96 khz 24 bit devices with really nice analog circuitry and no spurious tones or aliasing or such issues.  Just like a good 6 to 10 megapixel camera with a nice large low noise sensor would be very nice to have. 

 

Oh and let us not forget word clocks external to the device.  And the obsession with really, really, really, really, really precise clocking.  Plenty of devices should scrap the money on that and put $20 toward the analog circuitry involved (within which I include the power supplies).  

[esldude]

On 12/4/2017 at 7:46 PM, esldude said:

 

Why does no one comment on the obvious distortion on KOB?

 

It is a great recording, and one of my all time favorites.  But it has some distortion in places.