[sdiy] Good 16 bits A/D choice for mono audio recording

[Eric Brombaugh]

On May 25, 2007, at 7:26 PM, John Mahoney wrote:

> If the signal swing were 10 or 20 volts (whatever the +4 pro audio 
> signal level is), and it was divided down to 2V p-p at the input to 
> the converter, would that help?

Probably not - you've still got that 0.1uV/bit level at the input of 
the converter, and now you've got the thermal noise of the divider 
layered on top of it. For any advantage you'd need a converter that 
actually operated at 20V, and then you run into other problems (slew 
rates, switching currents, etc)

> By the way... If you are driving a 24-bit ADC with a -20dB signal, how 
> many bits are you "using"? About 20? You get about 6dB per bit, as I 
> recall.

That's right. So, a signal 20dB down from full scale will be about 21 
bits.

> Is Ken Pohlmann's digital audio book still a worthy read?

Why not? The fundamentals of digital audio haven't changed much. 
There's some good stuff in there.

Eric