Bob,
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Originally Posted by bob katz  To be honest, we don't have the time to make and prove by test listening on each and every job that we do something that we have already proved to ourselves time and again previously. So to that end, I recommend the visual aids, as protection against software bugs and human frailty. |
Understand that I am not opposed to the use of dither! Unlike unnecessarily high sample rates that reduce track counts and increase CPU load, dither is free. When this came up about jitter in Bruno Putzeys' forum at REP he did not dispute that jitter is inaudible, but he said he aims for the least amount possible anyway. And I agree with that. It's simply good engineering practice.
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why should you be throwing a monkey wrench in the works to try to demonstrate how subtle (or inaudible at times) the phenomenon is?
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That's a great question Bob. My
sole motive is to learn the truth, and for others to learn the truth too. As you know, people argue all the time about what matters in audio, whether expensive speaker cables, expensive low-jitter outboard word clocks, expensive power "conditioner" products, and so forth. The key word is expensive. I see this mainly as a consumerist issue. If
nobody can hear the difference between a $100 M-Audio card and a $3,000 high-end A/D/A, I believe consumers should know that.
From my perspective, things like image width and low end fullness have nothing to do with jitter or dither, but are acoustic in nature as explained
HERE. As long as people know which they are listening to, it's impossible to separate fact from opinion. So all I'm trying to do is settle this stuff for once and for all. If it turns out jitter and dither really are audible in usual amounts, I want to know that too! Hence my quest for the truth via tests like this.
If I have any underlying motive, it's out of my frustration from seeing so many misguided magazine writers write about the importance of stuff like jitter, dither, and ultra-high bit depths and sample rates, while ignoring room acoustics that really does matter - at least 100 times more. Not because I want to sell more products! But because I believe it's the truth.
--Ethan