Ever listened to flute that doesn't have dither? It's horrific.
The whole point of dither is that it's nicer (and less annoying) to listen to noise (i.e. dither) rather than distortion (quantizing distortion).
Ethan your argument is flawed - you can't guarantee that someone doesn't want to listen to the end of that reverb tail - in classical music, you will frequently hear sounds that go right down into the +/- 1LSB area. I recorded on location before Christmas, a performance of O Magnum Mysterium. It damn near peaks in places, and in others is right down there. It'd sound horrific without dither.
Perhaps in a pop/rock track with no range of dynamics the effects of dither are masked, but listen to something with a wide range of dynamics and you'll understand why dither is necessary.
I've just made a small demo of dither using very low level sine waves. Anyone want me to share it?
The whole point of dither is that it's nicer (and less annoying) to listen to noise (i.e. dither) rather than distortion (quantizing distortion).
Ethan your argument is flawed - you can't guarantee that someone doesn't want to listen to the end of that reverb tail - in classical music, you will frequently hear sounds that go right down into the +/- 1LSB area. I recorded on location before Christmas, a performance of O Magnum Mysterium. It damn near peaks in places, and in others is right down there. It'd sound horrific without dither.
Perhaps in a pop/rock track with no range of dynamics the effects of dither are masked, but listen to something with a wide range of dynamics and you'll understand why dither is necessary.
I've just made a small demo of dither using very low level sine waves. Anyone want me to share it?