Just to add my 2 cents on digital vs analog processing.....
I use digital processing daily in my work, performing digital EQ, mixing, reverb, compression, you name it, and I don't think it's accurate to say that it somehow is not fully ready for prime time or "flawed". I have to honestly admit that even when doing bit reductions of music masters all the way down to CD standard 16/44.1k, I cannot hear
any difference or degredation in the sound. This is done on the same system, same gain, same everything except for the processing. I depend on my ears and abilities to pick out digital artifacts and any degredation in sound - that's how I make my living. I hear "digital done badly" all the time, and I know what it sounds like. Doing it right, I haven't heard anything to make me believe that the current digital signal chain is anything but transparent
if it is done correctly.That said, I also agree with bosso that digital processing should not take place unless absolutely necessary. In
any digital operation, the signal
is altered and subject to degredation. Believe it or not, this is also true (actually very true) of that most basic function of a preamp: digital volume control. Any reduction of volume done in the digital domain is going to
reduce the resolution from it's original bit depth. Reduce the volume 24db (typical volume in normal listening) and you've knocked off 4 bits of resolution in your SACD or DVD-A recording. The same holds true of any other function like EQ done in the digital domain. Doing some of these functions in the analog domain, if the circuit is designed well, will not compromise the digital word one bit.
So, I guess what I'm saying is that I think that digital should be used as a "capture medium" at the highest bit and sample rate possible and practical. Any post-processing of the masters should be done in the digital domain
CAREFULLY, before the master is committed to disc. After it leaves the digital to analog converters in the consumer's player, I believe it should be
analog all the way to the speaker.
If at some point in the future someone should come up with a
truly digital speaker technology (I'm not talking about a
conventional speaker with the DACS and amps internal to the speaker cabinet), it would make sense to keep things digital all the way. I don't see the present "state of the art" in speakers fundamentally changing for quite a while, however. Until that time, they need to be driven by an analog signal, and that is best supplied with an analog pre and power amplifier.
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The Soundhound Theater [This message has been edited by soundhound (edited March 11, 2003).]
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