With the advent of newer and better digital audio technologies, low-noise systems, hi-res audio and surround-sound home theaters, an increase in dynamic range and a demand for better quality sound has steadily been on the rise. Because of this, it’s more important than ever that those in audio production pay close attention to the background noise levels that are produced by pre-amp and amplifier self-noise, synths, analog magnetic tape and the like. Although the overall dynamic range of human hearing roughly encompasses a full 140 dB and well-designed digital systems can deal with such dynamics … in practice, such dynamics won’t be fully captured, played-back or appreciated for several reasons:

An acoustic or ...

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