It would be an interesting contrast to see a CD magnified X1000. Would you see the blocks or are they not visible since they are picked up by a laser?
Considering the (at least) 3 different sizes of pits I see on the CD picture, are those ones, zeroes and maybes?
Now you see the inherent flaw in digital technology. It can be very very close but it is not one for one analog. Can most people tell? Probably not but there is a difference.
Digital by definition is dots and dashes, x's and o's. The digital to analog converter takes this information and through an algorithm creates a analog output. The more data points it has to work with the more "filled in" the line of output is.
my 2 cents
The digital signal inherently has minute gaps in the music signal and those gaps are filled in by an algorithm. The algorithm is a best guess (averaging) of what that music signal is supposed to be.
Not true. If we listened to pure sine waves we could reconstruct them perfectly, but music is a combination of sine waves, so you can miss part of the wave. Just look at any irregular curve and take two samples. Now all you have are those two samples. How do you reconstuct the irregularity between them, given that you do not have a single-frequency sine wave between them ?No way - because we know that music is sinewave. Therefore, even at 20,000Hz (where only two samples per cycle are represented), the analogue waveform can be reconstructed perfectly!
No way - because we know that music is sinewave. Therefore, even at 20,000Hz (where only two samples per cycle are represented), the analogue waveform can be reconstructed perfectly!
Yes, digital has many flaws, but the "size of the pits" [Wardsweb, above] or "gaps in the music" are not two of them.
It is impossible to create a curve by filling in squares on a sheet of graph paper but you can create the illusion of a curve.
It is impossible for digital to perfectly represent a sinewave.
A sinewave is a (sinusoidal shape) and a digital representation of sound consists of ones and zeros (or blocks) and therefore can never perfectly represent a sinusoidal wave. As resolution of the digital signal increases the closer it comes but will never achieve a true sinusoidal sinewave. Although, it can come close enough to achieve the illusion of a true analog sinewave.
It is impossible to create a curve by filling in squares on a sheet of graph paper but you can create the illusion of a curve.
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