[vorbis-dev] Can compressed music sound better than uncompressed?

[Greg Mayer]

Consider this:

With digital encoding, we are limited to discrete values for signal
representation.  So if we increase the number of bits available to us in the
encoding, then we can get a more accurate representation of the original
analog signal.  How can we increase the number of bits available?  We free
up bits that would have been used to store audio signals outside of the
normal range of hearing or that were masked by other sounds.

You are absolutely right that you cannot increase resolution beyond that of
the original recording.  But if you have a high quality analog recording,
then you can more closely represent the analog signal digitally with more
bits available to you.  Although, in practice, this increase may not be
perceivable to the listener.

Perhaps it should have read "then the sound quality will be a more accurate
representation of the original recording."

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-vorbis-dev at xiph.org [mailto:owner-vorbis-dev at xiph.org]On
Behalf Of Robert Voigt
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 12:37 PM
To: vorbis-dev at xiph.org
Subject: Re: [vorbis-dev] Can compressed music sound better than
uncompressed?

On Wednesday 09 May 2001 21:10, Greg Mayer wrote:
> The idea, I think, is since certain frequencies and sounds are outside of
> the range of human hearing, then why bother carrying that information
along
> in the signal when it can be suppressed with no noticeable effect on the
> outcome.  So if you get rid of that information and use the available
space
> (as Lourens suggested) for higher resolution storage of the information
> that you can hear, then the sound quality can be improved.

This does not convince me. A perceptual coder cannot increase resolution of
any portion of the original recording, it can only take what's already there
no matter how many bits it allocates for the important information.

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