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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mouton!karn
From: karn@mouton.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Sheffield CDs and why they sound bad
Message-ID: <176@mouton.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Oct-84 11:07:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: mouton.176
Posted: Wed Oct 10 11:07:06 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Oct-84 06:54:34 EDT
References: <460@watdcsu.UUCP> <46@vice.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 13

On every CD I own, both those recorded from analog masters and from
digital masters, the recorded-in noise level from microphone amplifiers,
mixers, ventilating systems, etc, exceeds the quantizing noise level
by a considerable margin.  This provides a "self-dithering" mechanism
that completely masks quantizing noise.  The only time I've been able
to hear quantizing noise on a CD is during a silent passage at the
end of a recording where the recording mixer must have ramped the master
gain down. The recorded-in noise breaks up and becomes irregular
for an instant just before it disappears. Mind you, this is occurring
at extremely low signal levels -- my volume control had to be all the way
up to hear this.

Phil