I have just read an article "Is Bits Really Bits" by Dave Moulton and I am pretty confused. In this article he writes that there is no adventage of high resolution vs. low resolution systems in terms of dynamic range and its audibility. As far as I know the main adventage of high vs. low resolution system is bigger number of discrete steps that leads to a smaller quantization error that leads to an audiable diference, right?

Please help me to solve this confusion.

Thank you in advance,

Drle Djordjevic

You raise an interesting question.

In an abstract sense, you are absolutely right. In the real world, we are already below the audible threshold for quantization error at 16 bits, partly due to our perceptual limits and partly due to the masking effect of other noise and distortion (acoustic, analog, etc) present in the signal.

The point this article was making is that we could derive much more benefit if we increased the magnitude of the Most Significant Bit in the analog and acoustical realms. I believe such a benefit would be clearly, gloriously, magnificently audible!

We don't do that, of course, because of the daunting physical challenge (imagine the problems of generationg (safely) 60 dBV (1 megavolt) and 140 dB SPL! There is also some practicality to consider, for those who didn't want such exalted playback levels.

I hope this helps.

Best,

Dave