> By your argument, however, EVERY synth could market itself as being
> of "CD Quality." It that is the case, then Synthtech's claim has no
> merit, as it could be argued that CD Quality lies in the way the
> recording is made and not in the design of the modules.
Well, yes. Given the extremely wide range of quality of recordings pressed
on CDs that I have heard, IMHO the term "CD quality" has very little
meaning. It can be literally interpreted to mean a PCM-encoded stereo audio
signal, using a 16-bit word depth and a 44.1kHz sampling rate, but clearly
this interpretation does not apply literally to analog synthesizer modules.
It can be more loosely interpreted to mean a signal-to-noise ratio,
frequency response, and/or dynamic range that this encoding format is
(theoretically) capable of capturing and reproducing; but variations in both
the recording and encoding process and the reproduction process (i.e., the
player) move those numbers away from their theoretical values.
I recognize that "CD quality" has become a marketing term which carries
certain connotations, but as a technical description it doesn't mean a whole
lot to me when applied to a synthesizer module.
--Adam