On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 07:41:13 -0000, "Tim S Kemp"
wrote:

Stewart Pinkerton wrote:

The resolution of an analogue device is, by its nature, infinite.

The resolution of an analogue device is, by its nature, tied to its
noise floor. Please don't let's get into this utter ******** again!

The resolution of any signal recording and reproduction device is the number
of different output values it can reproduce. So if it's analogue it's
infinite - however it also has a noise floor and a maximum output.

Those are also *all* features of properly made digital.

As does
digital equipment. However if (say) there is 1uV of noise and 1V peak
deflection then a 16 bit device can resolve /less/ points than a 24 bit
device between those points.

That represents a range of 1 million to one, or about 20 bits, so yes,
that would be true.

An analogue device with the same range could
resolve infinite points on that scale.

Nope, an analogue device with the same range cannot resolve any more
information than can any digital system whose LSB is smaller than the
noise floor, i.e. of the same dynamic range. There is of course *no*
analogue system which has even 16 bits equivalent resolution, i.e.
93dB dynamic range.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering