Is computer audio a bust?

08-21-14: Tbg
Agear, I have continually wondered about the fundamental question in this thread, which frankly I think is absurd. Now with your new restatement, I can comment more.

Tbg, I find you are spending more and more in the irritable professor mode as of late (going off on brain dead cyber students). :) My Dad was a prof and I come from a long line of profs so I am VERY familiar with said behavior.

As I have stated before, the question is a rhetorical device or quasi-Socractic in nature to generate discussion. Taken literally, yes, the question is absurd.

08-22-14: Mapman
My turntable started to be mostly relegated to the sidelines when I started using old Roku Soundbridge to my current DACs a few years back prior to moving to Squeezebox. Now with nothing new happening with Squeezebox, I am forging ahead for now with PLEX.

That has been my paradigm since 06. It does help he enduser bypass the computer silliness and the inherent Brownian motion of faux programing with nominal changes in SQ that would fail any good A+B test. I just got an Aries, and so far, so good.

Agear --

My findings are the complete opposite, and can summarized in the following (by another author):

Ever since I mastered my first CD back in 1983 and compared what came back from the replication plants with the masters used to make those CDs, I’ve found that CDs from different plants (sometimes different lines within the same plant) all sound different from each other and none sounds indistinguishable from the master used to create it. This is true regardless of the CD player or transport used, regardless of price or design. To my ears, comparing playback from disc with playback of the master used to create said disc, there are always losses of focus and fine detail, sometimes subtle, other times not so subtle at all.

Interestingly, when those same CDs are ripped to computer as raw PCM files and then compared with the masters, all the differences go away. In other words, with playback of these files via a good server, for the first time in my experience, the user can have the sound of the CD master at home. So, the convenience of a music server not only does not exact a sonic price, the results actually sound better than playback from a disc player or transport. (It might not beat good vinyl playback in some ways but that is a subject for another day. And besides, what I’ve outlined above is only the beginning. Read on.)

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https://soundkeeperrecordings.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/listening-to-tomorrow/

I have dialogued with Barry D. online. Good man and very knowledgable. He has a unique frame of reference that we don't have though with access to said masters, but I think burning a CD and then spitting out the master is obviously a little optimistic.

Agear, several truths drive me to my basic indifference to this thread. One, using a music server is far more convenient than playing cds or sacds. Two data that is repeatedly read off the optical drive and then replayed off that drive is more accurate than those read by a universal player's optical drive. Three, high definition copies are superior to low definition drives. There is more information and the digital filters apply at much higher frequencies. Four true DSD information goes through a different portion of the Sabre chip and sounds superior to PCM. Five, I think the old adage that bits are bits is ridiculous. Cabling has a major impact on what bits are received as does the accuracy of the clocks involved.

Finally, this thread is not different from any others–there is never any consensus. Matt has satisfied his interests and had the good fortune to hear many units in his own room. Most of us don't even have a dealer where they might even hear one player. I was curious enough to see how this played out, but quickly lost interest as the logistics grew more complicated.

I will just go back to listening to well ripped cds played back in double DSD, as well as many sacds in DSD on my hard drive. I'm sure that you too were unaffected by this thread and will continue to enjoy your system. Good luck.

Finally, this thread is not different from any others–there is never any consensus.

I think that is the beauty of this forum. Differing opinions are what drives everything here. I read them all, try a few, throw out most or them and form my own opinions. Audio is no different than automotive in that vein....there are fifty ways to get from 0-60 mph. We all choose our own route.
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