Analog vs Digital: a Neurologist weighs in

[Kimo]

17 minutes ago, esldude said:

I've seen a thread about this on another forum. Garbage article.  The guy either is highly ignorant of how digital works or has something to sell or his credentials should be ashamed of how they are being used.  

 

Makes think if I need neurological advice I would indeed be getting better advice if I go to my local EE. 

 

Well, it appears to be this guy.  I won't say anymore, but I am guessing "maths" has never been a problem for him.

 

 

William Softky is a biophysicist who was among the first neuroscientists to understand microtiming, and among the first technologists to build that understanding into algorithms. Thousands have cited his scientific work, his PhD in Theoretical Physics is from Caltech, his name is on 10 patents and two of the companies he inspired were acquired for $160 million total

[Kimo]

3 minutes ago, firedog said:

None of which necessarily means what he says about digital audio is correct. 

That is assuming that most of us can even understand what he is saying, or he can even make it so.

 

 

[Kimo]

I checked out his website.  He seems to varied interests.  

 

http://www.softky.com/

[Kimo]

Just now, esldude said:

Yes, I know.  His credentials and his mistakes (they are literally almost in every sentence) don't add up.  

I don't even know if you can call anything a mistake.  He truly looks like a really really smart guy, who operates in different ways.

 

Maybe as smart as Michael Lavorgna.

[Kimo]

5 hours ago, Abtr said:

Softky states in his article: "Even the best CDs can only resolve time down to 23 microseconds [44 kHz]." That's a myth. Even though he mentions Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem several times, he doesn't seem to be aware of the implication that with a sampling frequency of 44 kHz and enough encoding bits per sample, a continuous-time signal which is bandlimited to 44/2 = 22 kHz, can be reconstructed/interpolated almost perfectly by a good DAC, with a time resolution in the order of nanoseconds rather than microseconds.

 

So what can "the best CDs" resolve down to?

 

 

[Kimo]

Maybe bad editing on the author's part?  Perhaps, he means to state what "the best" MP3 will do?

 

He writes earlier:

 

So, I grew up experiencing two technology transitions: from analog LPs and phones to digital CDs and voice-over-internet (VoIP), which sounded fine, then from those to highly-compressed MP3s and cellphones, which definitely sounded worse.