Analog sound from digital devices

[drinkwat]

Analog audio is higher quality than digital because the analog sine wave form is round, whereas the digital sinewave form is square. Is it possible to get analog sound (audio with the round sine wave from) from digital devices? Is there an electronic gadget that will do that?

 

[shadyJ]

hahahaha wow

 

[highfigh]

Analog audio is higher quality than digital because the analog sine wave form is round, whereas the digital sinewave form is square. Is it possible to get analog sound (audio with the round sine wave from) from digital devices? Is there an electronic gadget that will do that?

Square wave is square, digital is like a series of snapshots of the original.

 

[markw]

II love these threads. Someone has all the answers yet feels it's necessary to come here to ask questions on the same subject.

 

[Swerd]

A polite answer would be, did you miss word your original post? Did you mean to say:

It is my understanding that "Analog audio is higher quality than digital because the analog sine wave form is round, whereas the digital sine wave form is square."​

Yes, it is easily possible to get excellent analog sound from digital devices. There is an electronic gadget called a digital to analog converter (DAC) that does just that.

A less polite answer to your post would be

Take your pick .

 

[rojo]

OP sounds like a tube amp evangelist in the making.

 

[TLS Guy]

Analog audio is higher quality than digital because the analog sine wave form is round, whereas the digital sinewave form is square. Is it possible to get analog sound (audio with the round sine wave from) from digital devices? Is there an electronic gadget that will do that?

We get this nonsense propagated by audiophools continuously.

Digital bits are just a means of describing a point on a curve. The more points you describe the higher the frequency that can be recorded and reproduced.

Your post has no basis in fact at all.

There is NO analog storage medium that can compare with the accuracy of digital storage media: - NONE. Any claims made to the contrary, are made out of stupidity and or ignorance.

Here is a 20 KHz tone reproduced from a CD player purchased in 1984 recorded on my test bench.

Note that the waveform is perfectly sinusoidal (round) and not square!

Now please do us all a favor and stop spouting such utter rubbish.

 

[Swerd]

Why don't we ever hear anyone extolling the virtues of analog TV? Digital video technology wiped out analog TV virtually overnight, yet we so often see people, who wouldn't dare dump their HDTVs, attempt convoluted and inept arguments that digital sound is worse than analog sound.

Is it because digital TV is too new? Give it 30 or 40 years and the truly hip will rediscover analog TV and the "superiority" of VCRs and videotape.

Where are all those computers with vacuum tubes? And can I get an analog, tube powered, 4G iPhone?

 

[3db]

Where are all those computers with vacuum tubes? And can I get an analog, tube powered, 4G iPhone?

I wonder how many rooms that would fill using today's tube technology?

 

[highfigh]

Why don't we ever hear anyone extolling the virtues of analog TV?

Because there are none. Well, other than not having it vs having it.

I will say, with a cheap old CD player and/or badly mixed old CDs, a tube amp can take the edge off. I was using a Conrad Johnson power amp at the time and it helped, the amp had been tested for response, too- flat to 20KHz. I haven't used that amp in years.

 

[rojo]

Where are all those computers with vacuum tubes? And can I get an analog, tube powered, 4G iPhone?

Not sure why, but this reminded me of the "Gas-Powered Everything" commercial.