DSD, PDM, PWM, and PCM explained

If you've ever wondered about understanding the differences between these digital audio formats, here's your chance to grasp how they work.

[paulm]

That was one of the best "Paul Explains" videos I have seen on this channel. Clear and informative--nicely done.

[babubabu]

Explained the matter very well, Thanks to Paul Sir

[Keith-pj]

Thanks Paul very helpful video you're the only one I can understand exactly what you're saying

[robertfournier]

I thank you for your well thought out explanation of these abbreviations. Digital continues to become part of today's audio . We need to educate ourselves so that we understand. 👍

[jozno]

Paul, for years now I’ve understood digital to be 1s and 0s. But this is the very first time I’d even thought of each digital device needing its own interpretation or language in how it utilizes those 1s or 0s. Thank you

[akenney]

Awesome video as always Paul. It’s going straight in my hifi & audio playlist as I’ll never remember it all. Super interesting all the same… we certainly do use the middle finger sign language back in Blighty 😂

[vvmaster]

This grandpa knows how to teach. Thank you very much.

[gtric]

i get the whole bit rate and sampling rate having to do with loudness in the amplitude of the sinewave, but where does the musicality of all the different instruments come from?

[budgetaudiophilelife-long]

🙋‍♂️🤗THANKS PAUL FOR EXPLAINING FOR US COMMON PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND 🧐💚💚💚

[wagsman]

I have been enjoying this channel. Vert informative. If I ever get some spare coins, I would love to buy some PS Audio Equipment.

[jownbey]

brilliant! you sir are a friend and an educator.

[guipe]

Excellent explanation! Thank you for sharing and God bless!

[paulapplewhite]

Hey Paul, Gotham (pronounced "goat-um" is a village near Nottingham (my home town). It was famed for its village idiots. Washington Irvine stole the analogy for New York politicians in Salmagundi. Years later, Batman writer Bill Finger pulled the name of a such-named business out of a New York telephone book, and the rest is history 😊

[Robbinsffxi]

I think this is the way I understand it now:

DSD and PDM is similar. The output consist of pulses that varies between 0 and 1, so the density of 1’s increase for high amplitude. The higher frequency of the pulses (sampling rate), the more precise sound.

PWM is a little different. The ratio between 0 and 1 is modulated within a cycle of the signal instead of using pulses.

I fail to see why one is better than the other. If high enough samplerate it will be good either way.

I would think PWM would be the easier to implement.

In many ways they all seem to be the same. A variable density of 1 filtered by a lowpass filter.

Am I missing something?

[rayt]

Gotham is in Nottinghamshire, the Wiki page is an interesting read. By the way, we do know what a middle finger is in England 😉

[aadarshkumar]

And what Equalizer is doing in pcm and etc

[duncanwinstone]

Paul the following is more the true meaning why and how to pronounce Gotham While Gotham village is pronounced goat-em, stemming from "goat town", the pronunciation goth-am was adopted for Batman. The link with Nottinghamshire has only been acknowledged by Batman writers in recent years.

[spentron]

You can also take the bits of PCM and add them together, weighted, and get sound out. If this is at a merely adequate sample rate you'll need more than a simple cap to get rid of the noise but at the root that's all a basic DAC is. You can convert the PCM to a one-bit converter but I'm still don't understand the advantage of storing a one-bit stream in its native format.

[odizcvw]

A useful primer. It helped me understand the difference between what the w, d, and c mean but all in terms of volume. I didn't get how the frequency is coded or decoded so more reading required. Or just press the button and listen.

[simrae]

Hi Paul thanks for the explanation. And the ability to play DSD through a low-pass filter is fascinating. But this glosses over one thing - that would result in a mono signal - how are two channels derived? Is it interleaved somehow?