Masked audio components below the masking threshold need no bits transmitted

Evidence

Masking is exploited practically in digital systems that store and transmit digital audio in order to reduce the amount of information that has to be handled, and therefore reduces the transmission resource, or bandwidth, and memory, hard disk or other storage medium required. Such systems are generally referred to as “perceptual coders” because they exploit knowledge of human perception. For example, perceptual coding is the operating basis of MP3 systems. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1656 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Audio compression exploits masking to discard inaudible signal parts — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 2020; Conventional distortion measurements include inaudible masked components; Fully masked spectral components contribute nothing to perceived sound (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Perceptual coders exploit masking to cut audio storage and bandwidth #expands (0.90) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1656
• Uniform quantization noise requires about 60 dB signal-to-noise to stay masked #corroborates (0.80)