Therefore, I will now introduce you to:
I do this because digital audio often appears as just one single thing.
The impression is almost that if only the word DIGITAL is included in a product name, it is also a question of digital quality.
It's just not like that.
You follow this blog because you want to know more about digital audio and want to avoid costly error purchases.
Therefore, I have chosen to divide digital audio into 4 areas.
Through four blog posts, we need to follow the music path from the studio and all the way via the Internet and out of your speakers.
We must identify the places where the quality of the digital sound risks stumbling and how we avoid it.
I will write in a clear and untechnical language, but finally send an email if you have any questions or comments. Then I will answer for the best of my ability.
We are in the midst of a digital revolution.
The revolution has happened relatively quietly, but everyone has of course discovered the internet, smartphones, GPS, social media etc. Far fewer, however, have noticed how digital audio now surpasses its analog ancestor.
Digital technologies have made more progress in sound for the past 10 years than analogue technologies have done in the past 30.
Today we can stream music through the Internet at a much higher quality than we have ever experienced with a physical medium. All we have to talk about here on the blog.
The progress of digital audio takes place in several areas, and if you want to experience your favorite music in an unprecedented (high) quality, you need one thing:
With overview, I mean the 4 areas:
The source. This is the first area we need to talk about. From here the music (yes, or the movie) is delivered. The provider can be Spotify, Tidal, Itunes, Netflix, Google Music, CD, etc. The quality of the data we extract from the sources has a big impact on the experience we get in the end. That's why we start here.
Transmission. This is the second area we are going to talk about. Transmission is about the way we move the data of the sound. It can be through a cable, via bluetooth, wifi, mobile data, etc. We risk losing precious data that can never be recovered if we don't get transmission right. On the other hand, there are good, reliable solutions. This is why this is an important field.
Control. Want music in multiple rooms? Do you prefer to push a button or control the music with your voice? Do you know the sound difference between CD, Chromecast and Airplay? And do you want to control light and sound throughout your home? There are many possibilities, which is why control has its own section.
Playback. The last stop of music before it hits your ears. In the playback section, we have amplifier, speaker, D/A Converter and the acoustics in your living room. Here the digital signal is transformed into sound that we can hear. Playback is the area where the digital sound really risks losing quality if we are not awake. This is the last of the 4 areas of digital audio.
Welcome to a small gradient where you get to meet the 4 symbols again.
We must follow the music all the way from the studio and into your own living room, to get the best sound experiences and avoid wasting money.
We'll see the next time we talk about the SOURCE and the incredible difference that's on the quality of sound through different providers and formats.
