Adjust sample rate · Trigger aliasing below Nyquist · Change bit depth · See quantization noise
Explore analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion. See how sample rate, bit depth and the Nyquist limit interact — and what happens when aliasing distorts a signal beyond recovery.
The fundamental trade-off between sample rate (temporal resolution) and bit depth (amplitude resolution). When the sample rate drops below twice the signal frequency (Nyquist limit), aliasing creates phantom frequencies that cannot be removed.
Adjust the sample rate slider to see aliasing appear when it falls below the Nyquist frequency. Change bit depth to observe quantisation noise. Compare the original, sampled and reconstructed waveforms.
The Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem (1949) guarantees perfect reconstruction only if the sample rate exceeds twice the signal's highest frequency. This is why CD audio uses 44.1 kHz — just above 2 × 20 kHz.