"JNugent" wrote in message
...
On 18/12/2010 12:36, Keith G wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
Keith G wrote:

Just don't buy it on magnetic tape or the silence will 'print through'
from the next layer of tape down if it is stored long enough!

Not a problem with digital tape. ;-)

Is that so? I wouldn't have thought it would be any different to
analogue...??

In principle, it isn't. The magnetic signal can be degraded by being
reduced in amplitude, whether in analogue or digital.

But the digital effect would not be to turn down the volume (as with
analogue tape). It would be manifested as a perfect signal until the
degradation reached a certain point, when the signal would become
incoherent. Just as happens with a TV aerial being used to recieve and
transfer digital transmission into a digital TV. Or like with a CD with a
fingerprint of strawberry jam on it.



The biggest problem with digital is that it's all or nothing and when DAB
radio craps out it makes the most hideous noise followed by silence.