Re: Digital to Analog downloading Question ?

On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 20:37:11 -0700, eseedhouse@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote
(in article <ftk21702j91@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):

> On Apr 8, 7:33 pm, bob <nabo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 
>>> The only thing that I find destructive to the sound of real music is
lossy
>>> compression.
> 
>> Seriously, you find that more destructive than, say, multiple
>> generations of analog tape? (
> 
> Wouldn't several generations of analog tape induce lossy compression?
> 

no, several generations of analog tape would introduce analog compression
if 
any at all. The concept of lossy compression exists only in the digital
world 
and is meant to convey the idea that in a lossy compression scheme, a set 
algorithm has been pre-programmed to "throw away" ****tions of the
quantized 
waveform that have been decided by the algorithm to be "not needed". This
is 
in opposition to lossless compression whereby the algorithm uses digital 
"shorthand" to compress the digital bit stream. IOW, in lossless
compression, 
everything is represented, nothing is discarded and when uncompressed 
everything is reconstructed exactly, bit-for-bit as it was before the 
bitstream was compressed at all. 

Analog compression works by either reducing the loudest signals to the
level 
of the softest, or by increasing the level of the softest to equal the
level 
of the loudest or a combination of the two. This can be done full spectrum

(like DBX) or selectively (like Dolby A, B). 

In a tape recording, each generation of tape causes noise to build-up, 
distortion to build-up, and transients to become less and less distinct,
but 
unless the original recording was recorded  wildly "hot"  (consistently 
driving the meters over "0" Vu), no actual compression is indicated.