The present invention provides a system and method for introducing white
noises into a digital audio signal so that there is progressive and
cumulative degradation in audio quality after each successive
reproduction of the audio sound signal in a fashion analogous to analog
audio reproduction. The invention provides a white noise generator, and a
digital entroping unit. In a preferred embodiment, the white noise
generator is implemented by a hardware random number generator. The
digital entroping unit controls the magnitude of white noise desired
based on a random number generated by the random number generator, and
adds the white noise to the input audio sound signal to produce a
degraded audio sound signal. The magnitude of white noise can be
controlled by using various masking and formatting of random number data.