Please Educate Me

Digital isn't just 1s and 0s. There is a whole bunch of processing actions at play like error correction, power supply noise, quality of chips and sampling rates etc. The better the device and the lower the amount of error-correction required, the more accurate the conversion from digital to analog. That's why a good DAC improves sound.
When you input a letter into Word, you are merely instructing a machine to manage one's and zeros. There is no specific intelligence invoked in the apparatus. The intelligence is outside of the digital space when you interpret meaning. The same with a digital audio component, it's instruction set and software (music medium) as it is 'transduced' from digits into intelligence-detecting sound waves impinging on your mind.
Word works better on some computers than others. Faster, responsive, 256 colors or 24 bit, better quality printing. Try render a PIXAR movie on a 133MHz Windows 98 machine. Everything matters. The colors are better on a gaming machine.

Glupson, I don’t see any difference between my version and yours. Did I misspell something? I’m a terrible speller. Thank God for copy editors. 

People keep talking about differences in printing. I’m a photographer as well, so I’m keenly aware of the fine points of printing. But once the image is fixed in Photoshop or whatever you’re using, printing becomes a mechanical process and isn’t relevant to this discussion. 

What would be relevant is how Photoshop works from one machine to another. I’ve known a lot of photo editors in my day but alas, I’ve never heard anything to indicate the slightest difference. As long as the machine has sufficient horsepower, Photoshop is always the same. 

Since I’m kinda getting into the swing of things here, I add this note just to piss people off. Very obnoxious, very immodest, very unlike me. But just to bolster my printing bona fides, as a photographer, among other exhibitions, I had an image on display at the Louvre in 2015. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t spend your days mocking those you judge to be unworthy of a presence on this forum. 

And just because I can anticipate the hypertechnical response that note will draw, no, the Louvre doesn’t display photography. I was under the pyramid but not in the official museum. Not a distinction I feel necessary to draw in ordinary life. 

And I’m sincerely sorry for that bit of blowhardlery. (Is that a word, Glupson? I tend to think not.) Getting in must have been some kind of fluke and I don’t expect it to be repeated in this lifetime. Again, my apologies. I’ve been taking a beating here and I had to throw a counterpunch.

...just another 'nite on the 'net.....*g*

Btw....I'm not an angry anything....bemused, sometimes amused, slave of my muse, but not meaning abuse except in a general sense when I make some....sense, that is. *s*

Paul, swing accepted but felt free to duck... ;)

Being meatless entities as opposed to IRL is irritating....look, I'd rather have a drink or share a blunt with any and all instead of 'all this'.  We could obviously 'read' each other and either come to common ground or avoid as needed.....

The OP states a rather open-ended commentary, and we all go off on our particular tangents; responses vary as typical and as expected.

Such is SOP for 'Gon.  Personally, I'm pretty pragmatic about audio and my approach to it.  I don't strive for the perfection that I know (IMHO) doesn't exist.  Too much between me and the performers at the mic or pickups in the studio or the venue.  What I employ to listen to that is a varied bunch of items that makes pleasant enough sounds to amuse me.

'You' may run from 'here' screaming or laughing; I'd rather 'you' pause and tell me what/why/YHO and discuss much; previous offerings accepted or declined.

As to Why we put ourselves through any/all of this is runs around the reefs of philosophy centric to music and the enjoyment of.

Spending time and pixels on the How is fine.
But whether 500 or 150K$...if it makes you smile and transported to the Other....by the Music, and not the How....

Wonderful.
Enjoy.
J

I got so tired of reading the harsh comments I decided to scroll down and just post. Seams to me @paul6001 posed an interesting question - got me thinking. Our DACs are processing digital information the same as our microwaves, yet we judge them very differently. The difference I believe is that music is an aesthetic pursuit - thus the method of delivery comes under more scrutiny. If our goal was to heat food - or process a word document - we would judge it by different standards. I’m not much on a video guy, but I expect those who are judge there DVD players the same way.