Please Educate Me

There’s nothing at all strange about OP’s question. We’re completely surrounded by digital information on computers, laptops, tablet, cellphones, RFID chips that track those phones in stores. The list is endless. And all that hardware seems to work pretty well; or to phrase it more accurately, it normally works, and it works normally.

But of course digital audio is vastly different. Some digital is sonically tragic; some is exalted and worth every penny. I think OP is asking a logical question that boils down to: why all the variability in digital audio?

I think the answer is tied up to a heady brew of factors, including:

• The complexity of music (for ADA encoders to handle), compared to other, less dense content streams
• The particularity of how music sounds--how top level audio is known to sound--and how easily that particularity is disrupted and degraded in the digital realm (and in particular, when it is converted back to analog for rendition on an audio system)
• And the high expectations and well-developed sonic biases, expectations, and beliefs of those in this hobby. Collectively we’re very quick to gun down bad sound (regardless of how it came to be bad)

I fought with digital for years (as in, "fought to like it and find it acceptable"). That fight got way easier when I discoverd multibit & NOS DACs. Digital is more ear-friendly to me now.

But I never messed with high-end network streamers or any of that signal distribution gear others know so much about. I suspect new digital gremlins await me there, ready to pounce.

Repeat: OP asks a reasonable question. The fact that he got treated so unreasonably says way more about this site as a venue for audio information than about his question itself.

Because reading text or looking at pictures on your p,c. is comparable to listening to music off a small radio. It does the job , conveys the information you need . This is not like listening to music from an audiophile grade system where everything matters right down to speaker toe in. But then again my engineer could not convey (via email) precisely the color of a commissioned object. His digital camera transfer to his computer was not accurate.   I had to personally visit his workshop. Likewise we are passionate about getting the sound right. Try reading a component review and gush over the descriptions you will read. And most of it is in a language we understand and can discern

"Repeat: OP asks a reasonable question."

OP, in fact, did not ask a question. She/he posted her/his musings and informed us of activities.

From my original post:


”Conceptually, logically, I don’t know why it isn’t.”


Doesn’t that invite a response, doesn’t that ask somebody to inform me why it does? Like desktopguy so nicely did. Complaining that, “He never asked a question” seems to be a level of pedantry way above 20 kHz, out in the range where only hummingbirds and . . . other things dwell. 

That bit of self-restraint is actually causing me physical pain. I need a drink. 

Glupson, you got me. A triumph of form over content. As punishment I hereby ban myself from this forum. At least until another inane question pops into my head. 

And to think, all this audio interest/excitement/curiosity was caused by the arrival of my new (used) LS50s. We’re only a week into this relationship but I can tell it will be one of the deepest and most meaningful of my life.


Now HERE’S a question, although it probably belongs in another forum: My tiny NYC apartment forces the speakers into an awful position. (The apartment is small but at least it’s expensive.) I can move them in and out about four inches and about the same horizontally, and I’ve been carefully positioning them inch by inch all week. The problem is that on one side, at the point of first reflection and a lot of other points as well, are two big works of art covered by glass. I’m not willing (at this point, anyway) to trade decorating for sound. And I can’t imagine that there’s any other way to diffract or absorb the sound, short of hanging curtains in front of them, which sorta defeats the principle. Suggestions, anyone?


I expected transparency and accuracy from these speakers. I didn’t expect the warm, rich sound. Maybe it’s the small room, maybe it’s my unfamiliarity with audiophile speakers, but they’re so friendly and inviting. This truly is love. 

Also, I did a little calculating. (I might have a problem here.) My quarter wavelength cancellation frequency is 214 hz. Halfway is 107 hz. Is that good? Bad? I can’t do much about it but should I worry?