(10-Jan-2016, 21:36)iliapas Wrote: a) every time you reduce volume by 3dB you lose 1bit
At -30dB
b) you will have a signal of 14bit from source 24.
c) If original was 16bit, you will have 6bits of resolution left.
a) I think you rather loose 1 bit every 6 dB attenuation, not 3 dB.
When you send a 16-bit material to a 24-bit DAC, you are supposed to use its whole dynamic, hence add zeros as Least Significant Bits, not Most. And these LSB are precisely those that you drop when applying attenuation.
So dithering aside, at -30 dB into a 24-bit DAC, you miss 30/6 = 5 bits, and there are still 19 bits of resolution sent to the DAC:
b) 5 bits less than a 24-bit material;
c) no lost bit from a 16-bit source (still padded with 3 inactive LSB).
You can play down to -48 dB and loose no information from a 16-bit CD.
Right?
