In Reply to: You have just degrded the quality posted by fmak on February 2, 2015 at 08:16:02:
The proper principles of system design amount to taking the sub-systems and designing the system to produce a desired level of performance based on the known performance of the sub-systems. If the sub-system performance can not be characterized, one can not predict the performance of the whole system. One may evaluate the end result to see if it is satisfactory, but this is trial and error, not design. The problem with computer audio is that one does not have characterization of the computer equipment to enable proper system design. That's because computer components are designed to move bits without regard to their precise representation as analog waveforms. This is contrary to the principles of audio system design, where performance depends on details of analog waveforms.
It has been known since the beginning of digital transmission of audio signals (in commercial use in the 1950's) that it is necessary to keep the digital signals isolated from the analog signals otherwise the switching noise will pollute the analog signals. This involves all manner of signal integrity concerns, and especially ground and power wiring. It also means careful design and isolation of mixed signal devices such as analog to digital converters and digital to analog converters.
None of this is new to the telecommunications and military electronics industries. It's only the audio industry that has yet to deal with these issues properly. One reason appears to be the lack of technical competence on the part of consumers. Another reason is that many with technical competence are unable or unwilling to hear the differences and therefore ignore them, saying such things as: "Sounds OK to me". "Good enough for audio." "Perfect sound, forever."
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
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Follow Ups
- RE: You have just degrded the quality - Tony Lauck 02/2/1508:52:22 02/2/15 (2)
- RE: You have just changed the subject again - fmak 09:01:17 02/2/15 (1)
- RE: You have just changed the subject again - Tony Lauck 09:11:35 02/2/15 (0)