difference between 16bit and 24bit?

[maniac_113]

i was just wondering if there was a difference between Sound blaste Live! and sound blaster audigy LS 24bit/96khz . and if there is a difference is it noticable or not.

[John Prophet]

They say the 24 bit is a lot better sound quality.

If I am not mistaken compact disks (like the music cd's you buy in the store etc are 16 bit)

[Agent_Embryo]

CD audio is 16 bit 44,1 kHz.

24 bit 96kHz is way better quality, but the difference in what humans can hear is subtle, although with a good enough speaker system the sound should be better. Depending on the source.

It is not uncommon for studios to record music in higher quality than CD-audio and then to convert it to 16 bit 44,1kHz in order to get the best possible sound.

[osprey4]

I've read that the human ear cannot detect the difference between 16- and 24-bit.

[John Prophet]

yeah, but you at least want your dog to have top quality sound

[MD1032]

Originally posted by John Prophet
yeah, but you at least want your dog to have top quality sound

Uhhhh...let me reword what he said.

90% of the time, it's not the fast that the sound card is 24 bit, it's that it's a much higher quality card. The op-amps are better on higher-end cards and the chipsets are much more efficient and are much better decoders.

Besides, once you get a 24/96 card, you can do kernel streaming!

[dr_roberts49]

The old RCA logo had a dog listening to an old vitrola. Anyone remember that? "My Master's Voice". Must have been 24 bit

Robert

[Hiphoplistner]

I know that DSD has only one bit just 1 bit in word length.
Super Audio CD has this which called "Direct Stream Digital"
DVD-Audio has a 24-bits up to 192khz.
I put SACD over DVD-A for both stereo and multi-channel playback. Having SACD player is like having $2,000 cd player in my exeripement.

[SpookyEddy]

I would think that mastering at 24bit could be handy as it would give you more headroom, that said I suspect that 20bit is more than enough. For every day listening I fear that its fairly (completely?) pointless. In fact I would hazard a guess that the limitations of the analog components combined with the source would prevent you gaining any benefit at all on most consumer systems, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to have those extra bits. Quite a few other factors would have more impact IMO (a quality output stage being one of them).

Regards

ed