Audio | Sebastian Spicker

2025

1 article

15 Aug 2025 From Oxide to Oversampling: The Physics of Recorded Sound ‘Analogue warmth’ and ‘digital coldness’ are not aesthetic preferences alone — they involve different physics. Magnetic tape saturates and compresses in level- and machine-dependent ways. Delta-sigma modulators push much quantisation noise out of band. Both effects are calculable. audiophysicssignal-processing

2024

1 article

5 Aug 2024 Why 44,100? The Accidental Physics of the CD Sampling Rate The CD sampling rate grew out of 1970s video-based PCM recorders. PAL-compatible equipment used 44.1 kHz; colour NTSC equipment used the nearby 44.056 kHz. Sony and Philips then chose one rate for the disc: 44.1 kHz. audiodigital-signal-processingphysics