Mp3, what is bit depth and how does it affect the quality of an mp3?
Bitrate is not the same as bit depth
We have explained in previous articles that sound is a wave that propagates through the air. And the act of digitizing it is based, on the one hand, on the number of samples that are taken, in order to be able to draw it with enough gfidelity, but that, if we have an X,Y graph, represents only one of the axes.
The other axis is represented by the depth, that is, we already have how many samples are taken per second, but we need to have on the other side, how many possibilities we have to “capture” the data that each sample captures.
If we have a bit depth of 16 then we will have a little more than 250 different values to draw the wave.
If instead we use a bit depth of 24 bits, we will have millions of different values. Which allows us in treoria to have much greater detail or fidelity.
All this is what the theory tells us. It’s like with colors, with a bit depth of 16 bits we will have 250+ options to describe, let’s say a green color, instead with 24b we will have millions of possible variants.
Obviously the first thing we will have to ask ourselves is if the device is capable of reproducing millions of different colors or variants in sound.
We must also ask ourselves if the human ear will be able to pick up these differences.
Even, and we won’t dwell on it, “noise” plays an important role here.
We would say that in general terms for the sound a bit depth equal to or greater than 16 is already enough to have an important quality.
