1. A method for signal processing in a coding system comprising: receiving sets of quantized signal elements, each set of quantized signal elements representing a respective segment of a signal, wherein the quantized signal elements are quantized representations of signal components having different quantizing resolutions; applying a correlating transform to the sets of quantized signal elements to generate corresponding sets of transform coefficients, wherein each set of quantized signal elements is less correlated than the corresponding set of transform coefficients and the correlating transform permits exact recovery of the quantized signal elements from the transform coefficients by a complementary decorrelating transform when there are no errors caused by insufficient precision of arithmetic calculations used to implement the correlating and decorrelating transforms; deriving groups of quantized values from the sets of transform coefficients, wherein a respective group of quantized values contains sufficient information from which an inexact replica of one or more segments of the signal can be recovered and wherein an increasingly accurate replica of the one or more segments of the signal can be recovered from an increasing number of the groups of quantized values; and generating one or more output signals that convey information representing the groups of quantized values.