grawk

No one said it wasn't a good amp (I haven't heard one, so I couldn't say), just that HPA's reviews are always positive.

No, I'm not saying that. It all depends on the master. You'd want dither to prevent bit alignment errors in almost every situation. When you convert from higher bit depths to lower, you have to do soemthing to make sure there's no bit alignment errors from the conversion, and you want to make sure to remove excess headroom to make sure you don't lose data. If you have 80db of data, but leave 30db of headroom (reasonable when recording in 24bit), you need to move everything up, so you only leave 6db of headroom.

24bit audio doesn't need to be dithered when played back at 24 bits, right. If you mean playing back 24 bit audio at 16 bit, then you definitely need to dither, unless it was mastered for 16 bit compatibility.

Me too. I bubble wrapped the poop out of those postage pounds...

3 lbs of postage to spain

You obviously can hear the bottom bits when the music is quiet, and ears are really good at picking up "wrong" even when it's very quiet. Dither exists to make the errors unobtrusive. Besides, I'm not arguing that 16 bits is more than you need. I'm arguing that 24 bits is more than you need, that 16 is enough. Plus, just because it's possible to master correctly for 16 bits, doesn't mean that everything being converted from 24 to 16 was mastered correctly.

Right, but that's a decoding problem. You obviously apply dither on the last bit when converting from 24 to 16 bits. The format was written that way so as to be compatible, not to make it ideal.

What I meant is that bits 1-16 are the same in 16 and 24 bit recordings. So as long as your content would fit in 96db, there is no difference between 16 and 24 bits. That way, you can play back a 24 bit recording using a 16 bit dac, and it will work just fine.

I'm taking advantage of my flexible work environment to work out in my yard under a tree today. Life is good.

Yah, it's more like 80 that can cause problems.

Less than a week.

65 is ideal

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That's what I'm saying.

I use a souflet dish , and 1.5 lbs of beads

Either you care about the maker or you don't.

I've never had that problem, sorry

You're perceiving differences, because you're comparing unequal things. Take a 96/16 and 96/24 or 44/16 and 44/24 or 48/16 and 48/24, with proper conversion from 24 to 16 bits, and there is no difference. Comparing something mastered for 96/24 to something mastered for 44/16, and there are a LOT more variables.

You don't understand godwin's law if you think that comment invoked it

Yah, "I don't like supporting Rocky Patel, because he didn't act the way I like at a corporate event" and "I'm gonna support Habanos Ltd, because Cuba's such a spiffy place" is like patronizing nazi germany because winston churchill didn't invite you to join his private club.

There is just as much vital live music as there's ever been. And it's still in the same places: the clubs. As to the "concert business", they've been milking $60+ tickets for a while. That's obviously not sustainable.

basing a purchase on an HPA review is like going to a movie based on the quotes on the poster.

I booked and paid for a condo at the beach for the weekend of 9/11

Look who was visiting my garden today:

Eh, who cares, bit perfect matters for transfers but for listening, bits you can't here don't matter. Analog or digital, once it's too quiet to hear, it's gone.