Near-lossless coding of high quality digital audio

Systems using low bit-rate coding of high quality digital audio signals will be in widespread use for consumer applications in the near future. Similar systems are needed for professional applications. They need to exhibit a much larger ratio of the audibility threshold of artifacts to the actual noise level. The term near-lossless coding is introduced to describe such coding systems. Standard low bitrate audio coding systems can be used for these applications, but are much less efficient compared to specially optimized coding schemes. First results on the feasibility of near-lossless high quality audio coding systems using transform coding techniques are presented. The results are based on simulation runs at bitrates between 3 and 8 bits/sample. They are tested using both a 'maximum residual noise amplitude' criterion and a perceptual measurement technique (NMR).