Leopold's Comparison Between Audio Formats

Last updated 2007-12-03

The cells that are left totally empty are the ones for which I don't know the answers yet.

If someone knows enough to fill me in with some other interesting audio formats or the blank spaces, feel free to mail!

The audio systems are in approximate quality order.

	DAT			LD DD	CD	LD	MD		DCC	VHS		Analog PAL TV		Analog radio		CC (compact cassette)				V8 Dig.	LP	Phone	GSM
Domain	Dig.			Dig.	Dig.		Dig.		Dig.	An. FM	An.	Dig.	An.	An. FM	An. AM	An.				Dig.	An.	Dig.
Compr. or NR	-		N-lin.	10:1	-		5:1		4:1	?	-	14:10	-	-		DBX	Dolby C	Dolby B	-	N-lin.	-	N-lin.	5:1 N-lin.
Sample bits	16		12	18..20	16		16		16	-		14	-	-		-				8	-	8	13
Sample rate	48k	44.1k	32k	48k	44.1k		44.1k		48k 44.1k 32k	-		32k	-	-		-				32k	-	8k
Dynamic range	96		90	>100	96		100		90	90	42	84	65	78	50	90	80	70	60	75	80	72
S/N ratio	96		70	-	96		-		-	45	42	60	65	78	50	55	60	60	60	40	80	30	-
Channels	2			5.1	2		1	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	1	2				2	2	1
Ch. sep.	96		90	90	96		-		95	90	-	84	40	50	-	60	40	40	40	75	30	-
Wow & flutter	-			-	-		-		-	0.005	0.4	-		-		0.1				-	0.05	-
Low freq.	5			5 2	5		20		20	20	100	20	50	30	40	35				20	30	300
High freq. (-20dB)	22k	20k	15k	20k 120	20k		20k		20k	20k	11k	15k	15k	15k	5k	20k				15k	20k	3.2k
High freq. (0dB)	22k	20k	15k	20k 120	20k		20k		20k	20k	3k	15k	15k	5k	5k	5k				15k	10k	3.2k
Max. pb.	120		240	60	78	60	148	74	2x45	600	300	-		-		2x60				240	2x25	-

DAT: Digital Audio Tape with all three speeds.
LD DD: NTSC laserdiscs with Dolby Digital encoding.
CD/LD: CD and NTSC laserdisc digital sound (PAL LDs are similar to NTSC LDs but the maximum playback time is 72 min).
DCC: Philips' Digital Compact Cassette.
MD: Sony's MiniDisk.
VHS: Two versions of PAL VHS: Long Play with Hi-Fi tracks, and Short Play without Hi-Fi tracks or stereo or Dolby NR.
TV: Two versions of PAL television broadcast: with NICAM digital audio and with German A2 analog stereo.
Radio: Two versions of European radio: FM and AM.
CC: Compact Cassette with three different noise reduction systems and without them. It must be noted that the Dolby noise reduction system only affects noise in the upper voice band, whereas DBX reduces noise in the whole audible frequency range.
V8 Dig.: Digital sound of Video-8.
LP: Long Play vinyl records.
Phone: Telephone signals as transmitted in digital form.
GSM: Digital GSM mobile telephone.

Domain: The type of system: Digital, Analog, Analog FM, or Analog AM.
Compr. or NR: With digital systems the type of compression or the compression rate is presented, with analog systems the name of the noise reduction system is presented. N-lin. means that the samples are stored or transfered in companded form.
Sampling Bits: If digital, the amount of bits used in sampling before compression.
Sample Rate: If digital, the sampling rate (samples / s).
Dynamic Range: The ratio of largest 1 kHz sine wave to smallest presentable signal + noise.
S/N Ratio: The instantaneous signal to noise ratio of sound. When noise reduction or digital compression is used, this is lower than the dynamic range.
Wow & Flutter: Wow and flutter present (%).
Channels: The amount of sound channels available.
Ch. Sep.: Channel separation (dB).
Low Freq.: The lowest frequency the system can reproduce without attenuating more than 3 dB (Hz).
High Freq. (-20 dB): The highest frequency the system can reproduce without attenuating more than 3 dB (Hz). The signal is recorded 20 dB lower compared to the maximum the system can record.
High Freq. (0 dB): The highest frequency the system can reproduce without attenuating more than 3 dB (Hz). The signal is recorded as loud as the system can take.
Max. Pb.: Maximum playback time (min).