Currently, on audio systems, there are 2 storage formats: Analog and Digital. But have you distinguished Analog and Digital and which audio signal is better? Let’s explore more in this article!
What is Analog and Digital Sound?
Analog audio
Analog Audio has been around for a long time and is still used by very few people today. Analog audio is stored in the form of reel tapes, cassette tapes or vinyl records by transmitting sound waves to the vibrating membrane of a microphone and recording them as alternating currents that vary continuously in real time. This variation is represented as grooves on a vinyl record or magnetic variations on a magnetic tape.
In more detail, analog signal is a continuous signal, the graph representing analog signal is a continuous line such as sine, cosine or any up and down curve. That means the signal later also has the same form as the previous one.
Digital audio
The sound we hear today from phones, computers, CD players, Blu-ray… are all digital signals, also known as digital audio.
Unlike Analog, this current variation will be stored as a digital file using the quantization method. There are two methods: PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) and DSD (Direct Stream Digital). However, instead of a continuous real-time signal like Analog, Digital only has a certain number of sampling times, which means that the signal has intermittent interruptions. But rest assured because this sampling frequency is very large, for example, 16bit/48kHz music quality has a sampling frequency of up to 48,000 times/1 second, so your ears cannot detect this interruption at all.
Digital audio systems allow for easy and convenient compression, storage, processing and transmission of audio. This signal can be recorded, edited and modified for use. With digital audio we can make multiple copies without fear of affecting quality.
Advantages and disadvantages of Analog and Digital
Analog
Advantage
– Best sound quality, high resolution, a hobby for those who like classic style, long distance sound transmission (application in television).
– The machinery system is cumbersome but simple, thus helping to save a lot of machinery investment costs.
– Can be cut and joined with analog tapes and discs
Disadvantages
Storage and preservation are difficult, the sound system is bulky, prone to noise, and has a limited number of copies. Recording is often quite complicated on magnetic tapes such as cassette tapes or video tapes.
Digital
Advantage
– High storage capacity, easy to copy, popular, extremely convenient to use.
– Sound is not distorted or mixed with noise, easy to convert formats or compress capacity
Disadvantages
– There are many factors that affect sound quality such as the quality of the decoding device, source noise, errors during copying and converting files.
– Modern and complex digital audio processing systems are therefore more expensive to invest in.
How to distinguish between Analog and Digital sound
In terms of signal contrast, analog and digital are the two most common forms. The nature of digital signals is discrete while analog signals are continuous. This means that the state of a digital signal is represented only by binary codes (0, 1).
As shown in the picture above, we can see this difference. With the advantage of low noise ratio and easy transmission over long distances, digital signals are used more than analog signals today.
A person who is well-versed in sound will certainly be able to distinguish between Analog and Digital to make the most accurate choices for their home audio system.