07-Jan-2015, 19:00
What Dr AIX writes is a bit daft.
Yes in order to record every sound we may be able to detect with a recorder with no sound level adjustment capability you would need what he mentions.
But no-one does that, and not because they can't either.
I do not need to record the sound of insects flying in my garden, and an aeroplane taking off nearby, on the same recorder without adjusting the record gain, and nor does anybody else, I'd guess.
I don't know of any microphone which could do it and whilst very recent line level analogue electronics may get close to being able to do this, no power amp of my knowledge is capable of a 120dB snr either.
My room ambient is around 35dB. I wouldn't want peaks of more than 115dB in here (!!!) which means a snr of 80db would be the absolute most I would need here.
Most of the pop music recordings I own have a dynamic range of less than 25dB, and modern ones often less than 10dB.
Classical recordings of something like a Mahler symphony sometimes have a wide dynamic range, but most have been subtly dynamic range limited to make them suitable for domestic listening, that is both what people can put up with at home and the limits of domestic audio.
Personally, the last time I checked my high frequency hearing I did not want to go too loud (the threshold of hearing is quite high at high frequencies) in case I did damage, but I could hear up to 14kHz.
So I am happy to report that anything above the BBC FM transfer spec of 32/14 is more than I need, and CD acceptable overkill.
I still find the most realistic sound I hear at home are Radio 4 live broadcasts. IMHO/IME fine SQ is much more about good microphones, expertly positioned than it is about digital resolution.
Hi-res digital is there to keep enthusiasts buying. It does not make a bad recording sound any better and good recordings already sound breathtaking at FM and CD resolution. IME.
Personally I consider CD hi (enough) res.
OTOH I can not resist buying some 96/24 and 48/24 downloads from time to time...
Yes in order to record every sound we may be able to detect with a recorder with no sound level adjustment capability you would need what he mentions.
But no-one does that, and not because they can't either.
I do not need to record the sound of insects flying in my garden, and an aeroplane taking off nearby, on the same recorder without adjusting the record gain, and nor does anybody else, I'd guess.
I don't know of any microphone which could do it and whilst very recent line level analogue electronics may get close to being able to do this, no power amp of my knowledge is capable of a 120dB snr either.
My room ambient is around 35dB. I wouldn't want peaks of more than 115dB in here (!!!) which means a snr of 80db would be the absolute most I would need here.
Most of the pop music recordings I own have a dynamic range of less than 25dB, and modern ones often less than 10dB.
Classical recordings of something like a Mahler symphony sometimes have a wide dynamic range, but most have been subtly dynamic range limited to make them suitable for domestic listening, that is both what people can put up with at home and the limits of domestic audio.
Personally, the last time I checked my high frequency hearing I did not want to go too loud (the threshold of hearing is quite high at high frequencies) in case I did damage, but I could hear up to 14kHz.
So I am happy to report that anything above the BBC FM transfer spec of 32/14 is more than I need, and CD acceptable overkill.
I still find the most realistic sound I hear at home are Radio 4 live broadcasts. IMHO/IME fine SQ is much more about good microphones, expertly positioned than it is about digital resolution.
Hi-res digital is there to keep enthusiasts buying. It does not make a bad recording sound any better and good recordings already sound breathtaking at FM and CD resolution. IME.
Personally I consider CD hi (enough) res.
OTOH I can not resist buying some 96/24 and 48/24 downloads from time to time...
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire
