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32bit audio?

N

nekrosoft13

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
1,618
I saw new Intel HD audio mentioned on few sites, about it having 32bit audio. how much better is it from lets say X-Fi? Also are there any facts or rumors of Creative working on 32bit sound cards?
 
Umm 32bit isn't really anything I have an Audigy 2 ZS and can play music in 96000hz,32bit mode using foobar2000's kernal streaming.
 
32 bit is marketing BS.

This might relate to internal sampling rates that might considerably differ.

The bottom line is: 24bit/96kHz is a professional top standard.
24 bits give theoretically a dynamic range of 144dB, effectively less: in around 120dB due to non-linearity of converters etc.

There is no need for wider dynamic range as human hearing can't take it,
howevver some marine mammals can. They might be not interested, though.
 
Uncle Jim said:
32 bit is marketing BS.

This might relate to internal sampling rates that might considerably differ.

The bottom line is: 24bit/96kHz is a professional top standard.
24 bits give theoretically a dynamic range of 144dB, effectively less: in around 120dB due to non-linearity of converters etc.

There is no need for wider dynamic range as human hearing can't take it,
howevver some marine mammals can. They might be not interested, though.
Click to expand...

And might I add that even at the lower 120dB range, that is WAY more than any music is ever produced at or you would even want!
 
Future formats will be 32bit + whatever else HD DTS (I can't wait either, Dolby Digital is horrible, CD is just average)

BTW resampling to 32 bits + 96000khz in foobar will lower the quality of your audio. No point in resampling to higher frequencies than the source material.

Also BTW Anything is better than an X-fi :D
 
so 96 will sound better than 48, and 48 better than 44? I've got an Audigy 2 ZS
 
peacetilence said:
Future formats will be 32bit + whatever else HD DTS (I can't wait either, Dolby Digital is horrible, CD is just average)

BTW resampling to 32 bits + 96000khz in foobar will lower the quality of your audio. No point in resampling to higher frequencies than the source material.

Also BTW Anything is better than an X-fi :D
Click to expand...

Dolby Digital is horrible?? Man I'm glad I can't hear as well as you can...
And you can't possibly say that bit-perfect playback with an X-Fi is horrible... unless you have a horrible amp.

dchrsf said:
so 96 will sound better than 48, and 48 better than 44? I've got an Audigy 2 ZS
Click to expand...


No, not really. CD audio (and Mp3's) are produced at 44.1KHz, resampling it will really just add distortion. I think Dolby Digital and DTS are 48KHz and therefore should be played back at 48KHz. As a general rule of thumb you dont want to change the sample rate from what it orriginally was.
 
peacetilence said:
BTW resampling to 32 bits + 96000khz in foobar will lower the quality of your audio. No point in resampling to higher frequencies than the source material.
Click to expand...

Not really a good blanket statement. Some sound cards will force conversion in hardware to say 32bit, 48k (creative) and their built in hardware conversion is not as good as foobar. So converting in foobar will yeild better results then letting the hardware do it. However you do NOT gain quaility over the original source played through proper hardware that does not do these silly things.
 
Mister X said:
Neither is this one.


:p
Click to expand...

very true. I was trying to make the point that what you do conversion wise is dependent on the hardware and software at hand.
 
There seems to be an impression that CL cards force SRC to 48 KHz.

In the case of the X-Fi, this is not true.


Depending on the mode the X-Fi is operating in, it will allow you to select SRC or not. But, in Creation mode, it ONLY uses native 44.1 KHz mode. In the 44.1 mode audio quality from CD is strictly dependant on DAC quality.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1814400,00.asp


This still doesn't change the fact that CD quality is only 'average' even when played on high end discrete audio systems. The source encoding of 16 bit 44.1 KHz is flawed from the start, both from harmonics and from frequency response.

In the case of 32 bit audio, the new standard for windows vista audio driver module, it's going to happen like it or not and it does not mean you will be forced to have SRC for CD reproduction. It might mean BRC instead, but that will not have any negative effect, in fact, it will have the same degree of effect as two times oversampling does, making the DAC brick wall filter less critical.

So there...
 
BBA said:
There seems to be an impression that CL cards force SRC to 48 KHz.
Click to expand...

Sorry I should have been more specfic but I do not remember the exact models that forced 48kHz. I believe the Audigy1 cards did, not sure about 2. I know X-Fi does not cause I have one and rather enjoy it. Only complaint is the need to make the drivers configurable in such a way that you can have profiles for active software. Forgetting to go to Game mode when launching a game means having to exit the game change modes re-launch the game and in most games reconfigure the Audio controls in game.
 
Most cards convert 44khz (cd's mp3's flac's etc) to 48khz using windows Kmixer.

In this case it's better to have foobar do the converting to 48khz because windows kmixer introduces artifacts and lowers sound quality

But to convert a 44khz 16bit file to 96000hz @ 32bit will just lower the audio quality. It will sound thin, treble heavy and stretched out.


To the person that said Dolby Digtal wasn't terrible.

Have you ever listened to anything in DTS before? The difference between Dolby Digital and DTS is similar to the difference between a 128kb mp3 and a lossless file (to me atleast, Dolby Digital sounds mediocre compared to DTS)
 
peacetilence said:
Future formats will be 32bit + whatever else HD DTS (I can't wait either, Dolby Digital is horrible, CD is just average)

BTW resampling to 32 bits + 96000khz in foobar will lower the quality of your audio. No point in resampling to higher frequencies than the source material.

Also BTW Anything is better than an X-fi :D
Click to expand...


Yeah I know I am just sayin I can I usually have it set to 24bit,96000hz
 
peacetilence said:
To the person that said Dolby Digtal wasn't terrible.

Have you ever listened to anything in DTS before? The difference between Dolby Digital and DTS is similar to the difference between a 128kb mp3 and a lossless file (to me atleast, Dolby Digital sounds mediocre compared to DTS)
Click to expand...


Now I might not have the best equipment in the world, but I cannot tell a difference between DD and DTS on my Senn 555's thru my Panny XR-55 amp.
 
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