Dither option

[Bhaveshpa]

Can someone tell me which one is ideal or best to use. I have no idea about it.

[Bencherished]

I Google the word dither, it said, it has to do with adding noise to image or sound to make it look better or sound better, 

The word add did not interest me, so I am using none (fastest) 

Bencherished 

[6b6561]

Here is another Googler... My understanding is that dither should only be applied if you go down in bit-depth, like from 24-bit to 16-bit. , then dither is applied to "even" out the bit cut that otherwise can be heard.

If this is correct, then I would assume that this doesn't apply to low-res formats like mp3 and flac rips of CD's which are 16-bit.

https://www.waves.com/audio-dithering-what-you-need-to-know

[andrewilley]

See http://sox.sourceforge.net/sox.html#:~:text=Dithering is a technique used,white noise to the signal.

Andre

[Bhaveshpa]

But which one should i use idf i apply dither

[andrewilley]

14 minutes ago, Bhaveshpa said:

But which one should i use idf i apply dither

Try some and see if you can hear any differences. To be honest, it's more of a technical setting, different algorithms to do the same thing, I rather doubt you'll actually hear much audible difference at all. 

What resampling are you wanting to do? (Source file bit-depth vs output settings)

Andre

[Bhaveshpa]

Most of the files are 16 bit 44.1khz

[andrewilley]

17 minutes ago, Bhaveshpa said:

Most of the files are 16 bit 44.1khz

In which case why not output at 16-bit 44.1kHz too?

Anyway, dither is probably pretty much irrelevant for you as I understand it's mostly only needed for reducing bit depth, not when increasing it.

Andre

[Bhaveshpa]

Thanks for the info.

 

[MoPhoMike]

Dither is a method of adding white noise which has the effect of lowering the noise floor to eliminate distortion and noise that would otherwise ruin the audio. When music is mastered, and mp3 files are created, and compressed, certain information is actually "deleted". The algorithm used will allow the media player to "decode" the data and essentially add the missing data back in then to be converted once again from digital to analog through the DAC. Since your files are 16 bit/44.1khz resolution, and assuming your not using the hi-res output, ie 24bit/96khz, this value should be left to none. Otherwise, you can try various dithering dependent on which speakers/headphones you're using and listen for which sounds best. All of my music on my phone is at least 24bit/48khz mp3 or flac. Flac files actually sound much better, having more dynamic range, but at the expense of larger files. Usually 2-3 times that of an mp3.

Lots more information is available at this link: https://www.darkroommastering.com/dithering-explained/

[MotleyG]

Like any form of DSP, adding something like dither can increase your processing power. So it is selectable and may need to be defeated when using older/slower devices if it introduces more problems than it can fix. Different versions of dither take more or less processing, so again that could be impacted by the device involved.

Dither is most important when changing between formats, especially when down-sampling. So if you are playing files that don't require any sampling changes, dither isn't really relevant. Plus, if you can't hear any difference between the available options you are best just to leave it off anyhow tp save power and processing on a mobile device.

The users that are most likely to hear anything will already know what setting they want, and it will also most likely only be evident on devices with premium DACs and combined with very high-end headphones, or with external DACs.