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Does the quality of a digital signal matter?

I recently heard a demonstration where a CD player was played with and without being supported with three Nordost Sort Kones. The difference was audible to me, but did not blow me away.

I was discussing the Sort Kones with a friend of mine that is an electrical engineer and also a musical audio guy. It was his opinion that these items could certain make an improvement in an analogue signal, but shouldn't do anything for a digital signal. He said that as long as the component receiving the digital signal can recognize a 1 or 0 then the signal is successful. It's a pass/fail situation and doesn't rely on levels of quality.

An example that he gave me was that we think nothing of using a cheap CDRW drive to duplicate a CD with no worry about the quality being reduced. If the signal isn't read in full an error is reported so we know that the entire signal has been sent.

I believe he said that it's possible to show that a more expensive digital cable is better than another, but the end product doesn't change.

There was a test done with HDMI cables that tested cables of different prices. The only difference in picture quality was noted when a cable was defective and there was an obvious problem on the display.

I realize that the most use analogue signals, but for those of us that use a receiver for our D/A, does the CD players quality matter? Any thoughts?
mceljo
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mapman's avatar
mapman
22,308 posts
 
Yes, it matters.

All the bits have to be retrieved and transmitted accurately.

Then the bits comprising each sample have to be converted to the proper analog voltage level by the DAC at precisely the right time.

Variations in these two fundamental operations will affect sound quality to some extent.

The good news is the technology needed to do this reliably and within tolerances needed to produce good results, at least with CD redbook digital is becoming quite mature and is not radically expensive. Different devices will produce different results however and the differences are often audible.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
It can matter long before the CD skips. If the error correction is struggling for whatever reason the sound quality will be affected.
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mapman's avatar
mapman
22,308 posts
 
"It's an analogue process using digital factors."

Or more precisely its an analogue process (all real world physical processes including electronics and sound are analog in nature) but one which uses digital signal encoding and processing techniques.
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