On 24/06/2017 11:14, NY wrote:
The fact that NICAM was 14 bit with only the most significant 11 bits
being transmitted - so for loud sounds that was the most significant 11
bits, for quiet sounds where the top three bits were zero, they
transmitted the least significant bits, and there were a few
intermediate stages; the same gain setting was used for a block of
several (32?) samples. IIRC no compression was used so effectively it
was like a CD but with only 11 instead of 16 bits.

It's better than CD type (raw PCM) at 11 bits. CD has to have the disc
mastered so the largest signals are full scale, and for a lot of music
the quietest bits are _lots_ quieter than that. 20dB is hardly rare, and
that's 6 bits gone straight away that will be all zeroes in the quiet
bits. It's the loud stuff where the quality would suffer.

I never noticed NICAM distortion, and I used to have a TV with good
speakers. (DAB sounds rubbish)

Andy