[net.audio] A-B Tests - Whither digital audio, really...

rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (05/14/85)

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Just so as to maintain a balanced view from the corporation, now
that one area has spoken like a buggy-whip manufacturer's view of
the automobile in 1895, why should we go analog anyplace?
AT&T-Bell Labs has released photographs of a direct digital
speaker.D/A in the air, so to speak. I think it only handled 4 or 5
bits, but you have to start somewhere.
Meanwhile, there are a number of promising ways to drive a speaker
with essentially a digital amplifier, going D/A in the loudspeaker.
One way I got a patent on about 25 or 30 yrs ago is to use delta
modulation (or something like it) with the loudspeaker serving as part
of the decoding network for a very heavy pulse amplifier. One can
convert from PCM to Delta in logic circuitry, of course.
Probably it would not be much more expensive to build a direct PCM
to PAM converter with the loudspeaker as the load. You need fast high
current switches.
-- 

"It's the thought, if any, that counts!"  Dick Grantges  hound!rfg

schachte@ittvax.UUCP (Peter Schachte) (05/15/85)

> ... why should we go analog anyplace?
> AT&T-Bell Labs has released photographs of a direct digital
> speaker.D/A in the air, so to speak.

But when do we get digital radio?  It might take a tremendous
bandwidth to get sufficient error-correction coding, but it would be
worth it for hissless sound.  And maybe some signal-compression
techniques could be used.
-- 
				Peter Schachte
				(decvax!ittvax!schachte)

dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (05/18/85)

In article <1666@ittvax.UUCP> schachte@ittvax.UUCP (Peter Schachte) writes:
>
>But when do we get digital radio?  It might take a tremendous
>bandwidth to get sufficient error-correction coding, but it would be
>worth it for hissless sound.  And maybe some signal-compression
>techniques could be used.

Hey, how about taking over some of the TELEVISION channels?  They would
allow a bit rate comparable to the CD, wouldn't they?  And good-quality
audio is certainly a better use of the spectrum than most of what is
on TV these days.  :-)

rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (05/18/85)

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But who needs radio, really. There's those lovely optical fibers... and,
if you insist, there are microwaves.

-- 

"It's the thought, if any, that counts!"  Dick Grantges  hound!rfg