On Mon, 2012-08-13 at 20:33 +0200, "Jérôme M. Berger" wrote:
I doubt those use 16 bits input. Even low-end hi-fi digital recorders support 24 bits, which gives -72dB for the noise and starts indeed to be acceptable. But most end-user will simply set their system to "CD quality" (or leave it at the default which is usually that same 16bits 44kHz, whatever name the app chose to gave it).
The Sony gear I posted does record with 16bit only, it's still used by professionals and even at Ebay those oldish machines coast >4K$. Btw. from my consumer stuff: Sony DAT DTC-670 Dynamic > 90dB AIWA HD-S1 Dynamic > 85dB I'm missing analog tape saturation, I'm missing the punch of analog clipping, but the sound quality of 16bit 48KHz isn't missing anything, even if you record with to less level. For computers digital recordings can be bad, even with a RME card, as on my machine, this has to do with the complete chain, resp. chip set of your/my mobo. The quality of professional stand alone devices doesn't need more than 16bit 48KHz. It's not bad in the professional studio and we don't need to discuss CD and LP quality. Lower than 16bit 48KHz is evil at any level.