AD122-96 MX
Appendix I
12
Appendix I:
αβC α
coustic
β
it Correction™
High quality digital audio sound often incorporates long words (many bits). Both high-resolution A/D
converters (22 bits or more) and signal processing equipment (digital mixers, equalizers, reverb and
more) generate longer words than those supported by standards (such as the 16-bit CD format). A
straightforward word length reduction severely deteriorates the musical fine detail of low level signals
by introducing distortions and a noise floor that is modulated by the signal.
Proper dithering serves to eliminate the distortions and noise modulation effects. The desirability of
such improvement is unquestionable but is coupled with increasing noise floor. Noise shaping is based
on shifting the noise from high sensitivity frequency regions to less sensitive ones. That process is
based on psychoacoustic research. A "stand alone" noise shaper does not improve distortions and noise
modulation problems. Lavry Engineering’s
α
coustic
β
it
Correction™
incorporates both concepts to
reduce distortion and noise modulation and shape the noise psychoacoustically.
Customer feedback and further studies taught us two interesting facts:
a. Various data compression schemes require the dither to have flat frequency response
characteristics.
b. Recording engineers’ preference of dither type (high pass or flat) and noise shaping curves
often depends on characteristics of the music involved.
The
Model AD122-96 MX
offers High Pass or Flat Dither type and four noise-shaping curves.
Model AD122-96 MX
allows the user to use dither with or without noise shaping. Operating noise
shapers without dither is undesirable so the unit automatically shuts the noise shaper off when dither is
off. Using dither (with or without noise shaping) requires user discretion. Ideal data transfer and
processing should retain long word length. A single word length reduction (and therefore dithering and
noise shaping) should take place last.
Figure 1 shows a -100 dB 1 kHz 24 bit tone truncated to 16 bits. The distortion is severe. Figure 2
shows the same tone with high-pass dither only. The distortion is gone, and the tone’s level appears at
a true -100 dB. Figure three shows the same tone with
α
coustic
β
it Correction™
applied. Notice
what the addition of noise shaping to the dither does to the noise floor in the ear’s most sensitive mid-
range area (approx. 2kHz to 8 kHz).
Fig. 1- truncation only Fig. 2 - high-pass dither Fig. 3 - Acoustic BitCorrection
High Pass- NS2
A number of mathematical and psychoacoustic researchers introduced two concepts for sonic
improvement: dithering and noise shaping. Credit is due to L. Fielder of Dolby Labs for providing the
basis for various noise shaping curves. The reasons for triangle PDF (probability density function)
