[sdiy] A question about Chorus

[rsdio at sounds.wa.com]

On Aug 31, 2013, at 16:22, Mattias Rickardsson wrote:
> On 1 September 2013 01:08,  <rsdio at sounds.wa.com> wrote:
>> A capacitor can hold any possible voltage (within its maximum  
>> limit), only
>> quantized at the Coulomb level when you consider discrete electrons.
>
> This is interesting.
>
>> However, any analog circuit is quantized at the discrete electron  
>> level, so
>> a BBD is no more quantized than a single-pole low-pass filter.
>
> Except for differences in signal level above the discrete levels
> (resolution, in terms of that quantisation).
I don't understand what you mean by "differences in signal level  
above the discrete levels." Differences just implies noise, but not  
all noise is quantization noise. Only when you map the values into a  
more limited set do you have quantization.

> How small are these discrete steps in the signals of actual circuits?
> Are there any circumstances when they may become relevant in audio
> electronics at all?

I doubt there's any way you can hear the effect of a single electron.  
I was merely being complete in pointing out that since a capacitor  
holds charge in the form of electrons, then there's no way it can  
hold a non-whole number of electrons of charge. In other words, you  
can't add a half electron to a capacitor, or any other fraction of an  
electron. However, 1 Coulomb is 1 quintillion electrons - even bigger  
than the U.S. debt - so it would seem impossible to hear a single  
electron.

So, yeah, everything is quantized, but it would be equivalent to a 64- 
bit A/D if my math is correct (and we can't even get 24-bit to work  
without at least 30 dB of noise floor).

Brian