h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Martin.

I was just coming by to drop off a link, and I'm surprised to find that you're thinking of leaving us! I hope you decide to stay, although largely for selfish reasons - I like you and I like your writing.

If you find a website that's more suited to what you're looking for, then I wish you the best there. Do stop in from time to time, though!

The link I wanted to give you is A882182, which is an entry I'm subbing right now that links to a couple of your entries from a couple of years ago (one of which was one of my first subbing jobs!). I just thought you might be interested in it.


GTB

I'm not going to dissappear instantly, so don't worry
Actually, you and agcB were the strongest reasons to stay...

-Lucinda

Oh, Martin'll see you at that entry

Ugh, no I won't.

That's such a totally biased entry it's not even funny. You *can* see that right?

-Martin

See, this is why I'm glad I dropped by. No, I don't see why it's so biased. The first paragraph is a bit, I guess, but after that it seems to settle down, give some technical information, and then talk about pros and cons of each type. Finally, it concludes with reasons that everything's gone digital.

I don't suppose you'd care to summarize what I'm missing? This is not a subject on which I'm knowledgable, but I'd like to do a good subbing job, y'know?


GTB

Rats, I just made a long response, but h2g2 swallowed it...

Look at the 'Nyquist Theorem' thread of the fourier theory entry - that's certainly relevant. Might be able to ask some real experts there as well.

The basic imbalance is providing infinitely good equipment to the analogue side, only current equipment to the digital side, and then trying to claim that analogue is better. That's a false comparison. On current technology digital music sounds better. On future technology digital music will continue to sound better.
The only people who prefer analogue sound are old people who miss the specific kinds of distortion that vinyl introduced, and believe those distortions somehow make the sound 'warmer' and give it more 'depth'.

Digital can be compressed heavily while analogue cannot. DVD-audio is at up to 192kHZ and up to 24 bits and is essentially perfect as far as the human ear is concerned. Most people can't even distinguish 8 bit and 16 bit (including myself). Digital copies can typically be made arbitrailly accurate by the process of verifying the copy against the original - on a PC the typical starting error rate is one bit per million. One round of verification can make that one bit in an American trillion.

Incidentally, it's "bit", not "BIT".

Hmm... I hear what you're saying (in 16-bit quality, no less). I'll read that Nyquist thread, re-read the entry with all of this in mind, and see what I think. If you're interested, I could post here again when I've updated.

Thanks for the info. That's very helpful.


GTB