Abstract: In a data compression system, a digital signal comprising a series of digital samples and a sampling datum indicating the sampling interval of the digital samples are written into a read-write memory (M2). The digital samples and the associated sampling datum are read out of the memory into first and second digital-to-analog converters (DAC1, DAC2), respectively. The output of the first digital-to-analog converter is applied to a variable frequency low-pass filter (5) to remove the components having frequencies higher than a presettable frequency limit value which is variable as a function of the output of the second digital-to-analog converter so that the cut-off frequency is lower than one-half the sampling frequency to eliminate quantum noise.

Abstract: A data compression system comprises an analog-to-digital converter for quantizing the analog signal at a first sampling frequency into a series of digital samples and a memory for storing the digital samples. A control circuit generates a sampling datum indicating a variable sampling frequency lower than the first sampling frequency as a function of the instantaneous frequency of the analog signal for selecting digital samples from the memory, reads the selected digital samples out of the memory means in response to the sampling datum, and forms the sampling datum and the selected digital samples into a data set. A series of data sets may be transmitted to a receiving end of the system or stored in a recording medium. The sampling datum is used to indicate the point at which the digital sample is converted to a corresponding analog value.