[Flac-dev] Support for CAF in flac command-line?

[Paul Davis]

On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 11:25 AM, Brian Willoughby <brianw at sounds.wa.com> wrote:
> All professional tools use conversion factors such as 0x8000 for
> float-to-int and int-to-float because it has a single significant
> bit, and thus this factor does not increase the bit depth of the
> samples passing through.

i'm not sure what "all" means, but i don't think its remotely as clear
cut as you insist:

   http://blog.bjornroche.com/2009/12/int-float-int-its-jungle-out-there.html

moreover, its critically important to note that this issue arises
primarily for float<=>16 bit int conversions, where generally
dithering should be done anyway. the noise introduced by dithering
will be at least on the same order of magnitude as the 0.005% error
caused by different choices in the conversion factor. conversions to
other bit depths don't face (precisely) the same issue.

its great that you're absolutely convinced that your view of this is
right. i generally have a lot of respect for your opinions. the
problem is that there are 4 other people whose opinions i respect
equally, and when i've discussed it with them, my only conclusion in
aggregate has to be "it depends".

--p