[sdiy] The eardrum and brownian motion

[Tom May]

That could give new meaning to the term "warm" :-) But I'd think your
ear would hear the same Brownian noise (if any) regardless of whether
it is listening to analog or digital.  Digital signals in general
aren't noiseless since the quantization error is noise.  

As an aside, there's an interesting paper on dithering here, and audio
examples of various dithers to go with it:

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/ozoneguide.html

Tom.

Grant Richter <grichter at asapnet.net> writes:

> I have been doing additional research on the physical structure of the ear.
> 
> According to one source, the force amplification performed by the stirrup,
> anvil bone lever, allows the eardrum to detect physical motion equivalent to
> the diameter of a single air molecule.
> 
> If this is the case, is it possible to calculate the effect of random
> thermal effects (Brownian motion) at the interface of the eardrum and air?
> 
> My thinking is that all sound is "dithered" by the Brownian motion of the
> air itself. Is it possible this is why digital mastering software needs to
> add noise back into a noiseless signal in order to improve the sound?
> 
> I am aware of the effect of dithering on frequency bin spacing. I am curious
> if there could be another subtle effect at work (or play ;^)
> 
> Thank you for any comments or feedback.