digital audio

digital audio elektor june 1981 — 6-39 Here today, gone tomorrow? Not likely! Cutting Bach into bits may sound like a heathen ritual — but it"s being done by dedicated engineers. At present, digital audio equipment covers the whole range from the Philips Compact Disc to a prototype Mitsubishi 32-channel 16-bit tape recorder with a tentative price tag of $ 200,000. And there"s a lot in between. Several years ago, we dealt with the basic principles — and problems - in this field (Elektor, September 1979, "One-nil for audio"). Now, it"s time to have another look, to see how things are coming on. Meanwhile, experts have found a new field in which to exercise their powers of conviction: digital audio. Two years ago, in Brussels, 25% of the lectures at the AES convention were related to this subject and last year, in London, the percentage was even higher. The main bone of contention was the sampling rate: one group wanted 50 kHz, another claimed that 50.4 kHz was much better; 44....