16-bit... It really is enough!

[Frank Dernie]

So your opinion is that 16/44 is enough.
Here is the bad news, you are a brainwashed victim of the CD audio industry.

Not really, just have some experience of recording which makes me know that no music I know of has greater than 96dB of dynamic range, so 16-bit covers ALL of it, and that the threshold of pain and threshold of hearing cross around 20kHz so a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz is sufficient to encompass everything audible.
That does not need any brainwashing, just experience and a modicum of technical knowledge.

Certainly there are plenty of less-than-stellar CD releases but that is despite, not because of, the format.

 

[ThePracticalPeasant]

Never mind all that, what happened to the flying cars, the 3 day week and the jet packs we thought we'd have by now.

Marty ran out of plutonium and couldn't bring them back from the future (or maybe we're all stuck in his past)

 

[Pluto]

So your opinion is that 16/44 is enough

As a final delivery format, ample. Admittedly, I would have preferred it to have been 16/48 just to ensure that no filtering artefacts could ever have intruded into the audible region, but I'm not moaning.

Here is the bad news, you are a brainwashed victim of the CD audio industry.

If you knew me you would know that I am more a brainwasher than a brainwashee and, I assure you, that a great many tests were undertaken to ensure the adequacy of 16/44 before the vast majority of the great unwashed had even heard of digital audio.

No, digital conversion (particularly the ADC end) was not perfect in the very early days but it was considerably better than any other recording medium we had. But by about the mid-eighties it was cracked, and converters have been improving ever since.

 

[Frank Dernie]

But by about the mid-eighties it was cracked, and converters have been improving ever since.

The biggest improvement since the '80s may well be in affordability! Converters then were mega expensive, now audibly transparent ones are available for a couple of hundred quid.

 

[2M2B]

even 8 bit is dificult to AB with modern music https://www.audiocheck.net/blindtests_16vs8bit.php

Yup, Some here even forget 16bit audio with Noise shaping + Dithering can give over 120db no problem. Hydrogenaudio even discovered quasi lossless like Wavpack hybrid which at 384kbps Is pretty much 4bit/44.1KHz wav with basic perceptual tricks to mimic 16bit/44.1KHz, Think a super basic version of MP3.

Also bit crush is a thing too which electronic artists do to get that crunchy noise effects like a bad vinyl LP or cheap tape.

 

[Wombat]

Bit crush

 

[Pluto]

The biggest improvement since the '80s may well be in affordability! Converters then were mega expensive…

Ah, but back then somebody else was paying for my toys ;-)

 

[SIY]

Now that one was for a good laugh, I almost spilled my morning coffee over my laptop.
Only a very small minority of world population uses (or ever used) Fahrenheit.

Yes, the ones who went to the moon.

 

[Mart68]

Yes, the ones who went to the moon.

But based on resolutely metric German science though...

Anyone of my generation and older in the UK still likes to talk in Fahrenheit as it annoys the youngsters who don't understand it, whereas we long ago learned to double it and add 30 so we knew what the 'proper' temperature was once the weather reports stopped giving out both.

And anyone who tries to give their body weight in kilograms instead of stones and pounds is ruthlessly suppressed.

 

[mansr]

Yes, the ones who went to the moon.

I didn't realise Liberia had a space programme.

 

[SIY]

I didn't realise Liberia had a space programme.

It's the size of England's.

 

[Frank Dernie]

But based on resolutely metric German science though...

Anyone of my generation and older in the UK still likes to talk in Fahrenheit as it annoys the youngsters who don't understand it, whereas we long ago learned to double it and add 30 so we knew what the 'proper' temperature was once the weather reports stopped giving out both.

And anyone who tries to give their body weight in kilograms instead of stones and pounds is ruthlessly suppressed.

I am an engineer so, apart from my early days in motor racing where Imperial units were still often in use, I have been using metric units since 1968.
I have weighed myself in kg for decades, though some of my children use stones (!).
When I was 18 I only had an idea of what temperature "meant" in Fahrenheit after decades of travelling around the world Celcius is more familiar to me now.
The only Imperial measure I still use much is miles though I am old enough to be familiar with most of them!

It's the size of England's.

All the British engineers interested in Space I knew at Imperial college went to work for NASA, they paid much better than anybody here. It was even called the "brain drain" because technology has such low status and poor salaries here everybody is temped to emigrate.

 

[mansr]

It's the size of England's.

Britain actually developed a space launch rocket in the 60s. Of course, that was before the metrication, so it wasn't very successful.

 

[mansr]

The only Imperial measure I still use much is miles though I am old enough to be familiar with most of them!

You're forgetting the pint. How can you forget the pint?

 

[Count Arthur]

You're forgetting the pint. How can you forget the pint?

I've been thinking of little else during lock-down.

 

[Pluto]

How can you forget the pint?

True. Whenever various factions kicked-off over the years upon talk of “going metric”, one of the few agreed retentions of imperial units related to the sale of draft beer.

Slipping down to the pub for “.57 of a litre” doesn't seem to work. But it might serve a purpose when telling her indoors that “I only had a half” (litre).

 

[mansr]

True. Whenever various factions kicked-off over the years upon talk of “going metric”, one of the few agreed retentions of imperial units related to the sale of draft beer.

Slipping down to the pub for “.57 of a litre” doesn't seem to work. But it might serve a purpose when telling her indoors that “I only had a half” (litre).

Oddly enough, bottles and cans are 500 ml. Wine and spirits are also sold in various ml quantities. Most of the Weights and Measures Act is a good example of completely unnecessary regulation.

 

[Frank Dernie]

You're forgetting the pint. How can you forget the pint?

Perhaps I've had too many

 

[pjug]

True. Whenever various factions kicked-off over the years upon talk of “going metric”, one of the few agreed retentions of imperial units related to the sale of draft beer.

Slipping down to the pub for “.57 of a litre” doesn't seem to work. But it might serve a purpose when telling her indoors that “I only had a half” (litre).

Metric beverage volumes just don't roll off the tongue like shot, pint, fifth, handle. Oh, and 40.

 

[Ron Texas]

In the US a pint is 16 oz. The glasses used in most bars here filled to the brim hold exactly 16 oz, so you are lucky to get a 14 oz. draft.