@mkgus,
Bits are bits. Some DACs like MSB and PSAudio Directstream support bitperfect test files that you can stream from your source. When the DAC detects the file contents, it lights up 'BitPerfect' ...which tells you the path from your source to the DAC is not disturbing the bits. CD players are bitperfect sources - those bits from the CD get to the DAC with 100% fidelity.
Then why do some CD's sound different? Even pressed vs ripped CD's of the same album? Its because the semiconductor chip in the CD player is a clocked digital device that has to decode the error-correction of the physical media. So even though all the CDs contain the same music data, the physical substrate varies and reliability of the encoding on the disk varies and the chip works differently to extract the correct bits. Hence the bits always are decoded correctly but the process of the chip doing so produces disturbances in the EM field generated ...and this (remarkably) affects the DACs analog electronics (stability of reference voltages). This effect is true with a galvanic coax connection but even with a isolating Toslink, the EM field leaves the CD enclosure to travel meters to the DAC.
We're all dumbfounded by this because its seems impossible that such miniscule issues should be audible ...but they are.
Bits are bits. Some DACs like MSB and PSAudio Directstream support bitperfect test files that you can stream from your source. When the DAC detects the file contents, it lights up 'BitPerfect' ...which tells you the path from your source to the DAC is not disturbing the bits. CD players are bitperfect sources - those bits from the CD get to the DAC with 100% fidelity.
Then why do some CD's sound different? Even pressed vs ripped CD's of the same album? Its because the semiconductor chip in the CD player is a clocked digital device that has to decode the error-correction of the physical media. So even though all the CDs contain the same music data, the physical substrate varies and reliability of the encoding on the disk varies and the chip works differently to extract the correct bits. Hence the bits always are decoded correctly but the process of the chip doing so produces disturbances in the EM field generated ...and this (remarkably) affects the DACs analog electronics (stability of reference voltages). This effect is true with a galvanic coax connection but even with a isolating Toslink, the EM field leaves the CD enclosure to travel meters to the DAC.
We're all dumbfounded by this because its seems impossible that such miniscule issues should be audible ...but they are.