On 2008-07-08, Arny Krueger wrote:
"John Phillips" wrote
in message

I often see texts that imply or state outright that
ringing in time-domain audio waveforms, usually
associated with time-domain discontinuities,
is to be avoided. I wonder what is the basis for this.

These texts seem to be promulgating a misapprehension. The misapprehension
seems to be that all reproduced square waves with ripples in or around them,
have those ripples because of ringing. Just because a reproduced square wave
has ripples in or around it, is not evidence of ringing.

Ringing is a very specific thing - it is a resonance. It is what a good bell
does - it resonates. It is true that if you reproduce a square wave through
a resonant circuit, there will be ripples in the reproduced signal. The
fallacy is the false idea that all reproduced square waves with ripples in
or around them are due to ringing.

Exactly. Someone has applied the "conventional wisdom" of the analogue
world in an inappropriate way to the digital world. The word "ringing"
seems now to be overloaded with incompatible meanings. It is actually
used nowadays to describe an observed phenomenon, but an incorrect
inference seems then to be drawn about a cause called "ringing" which
isn't clearly present.

--
John Phillips