[Duncan]

Hi All...

We're going to try and set up what didn't work at Christmas, a working FAQ for newbies, and seasoned head-fi'eans alike...

There is going to be one of these threads stickied, in every forum, so if you could please add technical terms, popular products etc etc into this thread - relevant to the forum you're posting in, and then hopefully we can collate them into one huge FAQ...

Thanks Everyone!

Duncan

 

[bootman]

Duncan, can this be of any use?

 

[DanG]

The "books" of digital audio
It's common for audiogeeks (more than audiophiles) to refer to the various formats of digital audio not by their common names, but by the scientific names given to them.
Red Book audio means CDs.
Scarlet Book refers to SACD.

And that's about all you need to know about that!

 

[DanG]

Let's get the capless pen rolling... please submit suggestions for what to enter into these fields. Simple definitions, history, pros/cons, availability... I need suggestions on how to compile this list. Just post your suggestions for format, entries, changes, or anything else right in this thread, which I will be monitoring regularly. Thanks!

[size=medium]The Formats of Audio[/size]
Commercially Available Digital Audio Formats
CD - Stands for Compact Disc. Developed jointly by Sony and Philips, the first audio CD was released in 1982 (?) and was a Bob Dylan album (?). Uses a 16-bit/44.1-kHz PCM waveform approximation with a low-pass filter at 20kHz for a 20Hz-20kHz potential frequency spectrum.

DVD, DVD-A, DAD

SACD

Laserdisc

Commercially Available Analogue Audio Formats
Vinyl

Tape cassette

Reel-to-reel

Home-Recording Formats
MiniDisc (MD)

DAT

Computer Audio Formats
MP3 - Stands for MPEG1, Layer 3.

ATRAC3

WMA

Ogg Vorbis

 

[TravelLite]

DanG, just a few resources.

Digital Audio Recording Formats - Pictorial:
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/digital2.html

Recording Technology History - Timeline:
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/notes.html

The Digital Revolution - Index Page:
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/digitalrev.html

TravelLite