Sigma delta modulation is a popular technique for high-resolution analog-to-digital conversion and digital-to-analog conversion. We investigate chaotic phenomena in multibit first-order sigma-delta modulators. Particular attention is placed on the occurrence of periodic orbits or limit cycles. These may result in idle tones audible to the listener when sigma-delta modulation is used for audio signal processing. One suggested method of eliminating idle tones is the operation of a sigma delta modulator in the chaotic regime. Unfortunately, chaotic modulation of a first order sigma delta modulator is a poor system for signal processing. We show that minor variations on a traditional first order sigma-delta modulator, together with a multibit implementation, may be used to produce an effective, stable chaotic modulator that accurately encodes the input and helps remove the presence of idle tones. (c) 2001 American Institute of Physics.