[Elecraft] Analog vs. Digital Front Ends

[Al Lorona]

Adam Farson's explanation of why the ADC clipping level has to be avoided at all costs is another reason why many people still prefer analog front ends.

Don't proponents of analog audio point out that when an analog channel overloads, it does so "gracefully"? This is especially true of fans of vacuum tube audio. You can actually tolerate some clipping, as long as it doesn't occur that often. All it does is make the audio sound a little raspier every once in a while, but you can still derive relatively uninterrupted pleasure from, say, the Salzburg recital of Grigory Sokolov playing Rameau's 'Les Sauvages'.

This is as opposed to a digital audio system where you can't even tolerate a *single* overload event. Clipping in a digital system is catastrophic and highly disruptive... the audio goes away entirely or becomes so severely distorted that you can't tell if it's Rameau's section in Bb major or the lovely chromatic passage in the turnaround.


Similarly, a receiver with an analog front end degrades gracefully. You might get intermod, but you'll probably still be able to copy because intermod simply sounds like more QRM. It's not a sudden collapse. But an all-digital front end is always in danger of failure in a very disturbing way right when it matters most.


Al  W6LX