[78-L] Recording Quality - a relative term

[DAVID BURNHAM]

Basically:

A CD is a PCM device.  The audio is sampled at 44.1 kilotimes a second and each sample is converted to a binary number comprising of 16 bits.  This arrangement yields roughly 65,000 levels between silence and clipping.  The highest frequency which can be recorded is around 20k.

An SACD is sampled at around 2.6 million times per second but only uses one bit.  This bit only knows if the level increased, decreased or stayed the same.  Because of the high sampling rate, even a recorded frequency of 100k is almost like DC to the sampler.  This arrangement can reproduce frequencies to well over 100K with a dynamic range about 30 dB greater than a CD.  This procedure is called DSD or Direct Stream Digital.

Much more basically:

A DVD is capable at its best of standard broadcast picture quality.

A Blu-ray is capable of hi-definition broadcast quality.

db




On Wednesday, July 2, 2014 12:01:41 PM, Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
 

>
>
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>Could someone explain, simply, the difference between CD and SACD. DVD 
>and Blu-ray?
>
>      Julian Vein
>
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