2. digital
  3. 169879-41852

16 bit vs 24 bit vs 35 bit vs 36 bit vs 64 bit DAC sampling

I have limited knowledge about DAC's, but as I understand it, a typical CD player used to have 16 bit sampling, and supposedly no one was supposed to be able to hear the difference between anything more than 16 bit sampling; however, I recently purchased an Esoteric K-01X, which has 35 bit sampling (why 35 bits? no doubt only to differentiate it from their then top of the line 36 bit sampled Grandioso series).  

Now I can hear a big difference between my old Musical Fidelity kW DM25 DAC with 24 bit sampling (circa 2005), and the newer Esoteric DAC with 35 bit sampling, although I'm not supposed to, although maybe there are some other electrical programs playing with the sound besides the sampling rate.  

Now, there are 64 bit sampling DAC's, and I'm wondering how much the ear actually does hear from the sampling, or if it's something else entirely that's making the digital sound better?  

Any insightful opinions or perspectives?  

Thanks.
drbond
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,878 posts
 
Everyone has a opinion ,Peter at Audionote is far from a expert 
on digital he is far from a digital engineer.
i know AN well I lived in the U.K for over 10 years 
tubes have their own bloom ,Aqua Lascala for example I feel better balanced hybrid are great ,Lampi too has their Tube fans 
With Mosfets and Multibit dac chipsets you can get a lot of the tube goodness ,without the tube artifacts , that’s why we all have 
choices. 

drbond OP
396 posts
 
@alan60 

I hope this doesn't turn into a "this is better" or "that is better" thread, but I have listened to a high end dCS SACD player in my system before I purchased the Esoteric, and it sounded much worse than my 15 year old Musical Fidelity player for the type of music that I listen to (purely acoustic classical); however, the dCS were much better for rock n' roll bass response.  

Nevertheless, please try to contribute to the subject matter of bit sampling effect on DAC/CD playback.  

Thanks. 

jb1
96 posts
 
Maybe the bitrate and sample rate have nothing to do with sound quality.What maters is the DAC's ability to create music form a signal its given.
alan60's avatar
alan60
165 posts
 
I thought my point was about bitrate, in that Audio note are only 16bit and they are developing a 12bit, and suggesting to check out Peter Qvortrup's views on bitrates, but heyho!
noske
783 posts
 
@cleeds

I understand the steps appearance in the time domain.

Instead of the sinewave looking smooth in the time domain, it looks stepped up in increments, then down, up, down with the flow of the sinewave. The horizontal aspect.

As bit rate increases, the size of these steps decrease. With 65,536 of the little buggers, I reckon the curve would be pretty smooth (but not continuous), in the scheme of tings.

Nyquist goes to Hz sampling (the vertical aspect in the time domain) and the step landings - horizontal bits - would become narrower with higher Hz sampling rate.

In any event, I query the theorem that a continuous signal may be obtained. One may be approached.

I don’t click on links.
More to discover