Difference between 16-bit and 24-bit sound

[melon]

Mafia: Most normal humans are usually only sensitive to the upper 15khz to lower 16 kHz range. Some people can hear slightly higher. Only newborns really hear up to 20+ kHz. Hearing range decreases with age.

You can test your hearing with this sample: http://ff123.net/samples/sweep.zip
Use this page as reference: http://ff123.net/sweep.html
*Note* this sample can only be used if you have a sound card that does not resample (that leaves you Sound Blaster users SOL)

To all: Don't confuse Sound Pressure Level (dB) with Sensitivity/signal to noise rating. Even though they both use dB as a unit of measure, they are two totally different measurements. When refering to a sound card the dB number refers to signal to noise. The chances of actually hearing the difference between a 91dB s/n and 100dB s/n is slim. Almost all pc speaker amplifiers and/or electrical interference inside the pc will add more noise than this slight difference would make audible.

Interesting sample. I heard the entire range, actually, and could have gone higher probably. Of course, it could mean that my sound card messed things up, but I should also mention that I'm not a lot of fun at concerts, because I can't stand all the noise I hear, and, thus, wear earplugs...lol. Also, after six years of production work, I've been adjusted to pick up the most minute things in audio and in video.

But this noise I hear, mentioned on that link--"I used to be able to hear the 19kHz hum of the high-voltage switching power supplies in TV's"--I still hear it, and boy...is it annoying.

Melon

 

[dreamliner77]

Yeah, I hear that too and it annoys me. It is good for if my roomate leaves the tv on after watching a dvd and the screen is black and looks off.

 

[Zedric]

yeah exactly the normal human can hear up to 20,00khz i think something like that maybe hes just super man

Yes true, which is why 44.1 KHz is as good as it gets for the human ear. In order to perfectly sample an analog signal digitally you need to use a sample frequency larger than 2x the highest sampled frequency. And since 44.1 kHz > 2*20kHz that will give you perfect sound for listening to. 48 kHz and 96 kHz is just better time resolution if you need to edit the sound.

16 bit samples gives you 65536 distinct signal levels. I don't know how much the human ear can distinguish, but I don't think it's more (or much more) than that. 24 bits is 16.8 million signal levels, which is only needed when doing sound editing.

And when we're past all the theory you need some pretty nifty speakers and amplifiers to play anything near "perfect" quality.

 

[dreamliner77]

I see someone know's a bit about my buddy Nyquist.

Also, it's not actually that we can't hear up to 20kHz, it's that we are not sensitive to and therefore do not hear it above other program level signals.