The amount of money in bank accounts is really only binary codes stored in arrays of interconnected hard drives. When these binary codes are accessed or transferred they remain unchanged. In this sense "bit perfect" applies! Not so in the audio world as many listeners claim! Hence the proliferation of ever-increasingly expensive DACs, transports, streamers, digital cables. Each claiming to be somehow sonically "better" than the predecessors. I am and remain a skeptic!
Please Educate Me
If I can’t find the answer here, I won’t find it anywhere.
Something I’ve wondered about for a long time: The whole world is digital. Some huge percentage of our lives consists of ones and zeros.
And with the exception of hi-fi, I don’t know of a single instance in which all of this digitalia isn’t yes/no, black/white, it works or it doesn’t. No one says, “Man, Microsoft Word works great on this machine,” or “The reds in that copy of Grand Theft Auto are a tad bright.” The very nature of digital information precludes such questions.
Not so when it comes to hi-fi. I’m extremely skeptical about much that goes on in high end audio but I’ve obviously heard the difference among digital sources. Just because something is on CD or 92/156 FLAC doesn’t mean that it’s going to sound the same on different players or streamers.
Conceptually, logically, I don’t know why it doesn’t. I know about audiophile-type concerns like timing and flutter. But those don’t get to the underlying science of my question.
I feel like I’m asking about ABCs but I was held back in kindergarten and the computerized world isn’t doing me any favors. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do. I’ll be using Photoshop and I’ve got it dialed in just right.
Something I’ve wondered about for a long time: The whole world is digital. Some huge percentage of our lives consists of ones and zeros.
And with the exception of hi-fi, I don’t know of a single instance in which all of this digitalia isn’t yes/no, black/white, it works or it doesn’t. No one says, “Man, Microsoft Word works great on this machine,” or “The reds in that copy of Grand Theft Auto are a tad bright.” The very nature of digital information precludes such questions.
Not so when it comes to hi-fi. I’m extremely skeptical about much that goes on in high end audio but I’ve obviously heard the difference among digital sources. Just because something is on CD or 92/156 FLAC doesn’t mean that it’s going to sound the same on different players or streamers.
Conceptually, logically, I don’t know why it doesn’t. I know about audiophile-type concerns like timing and flutter. But those don’t get to the underlying science of my question.
I feel like I’m asking about ABCs but I was held back in kindergarten and the computerized world isn’t doing me any favors. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do. I’ll be using Photoshop and I’ve got it dialed in just right.
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- 106 posts total
- 106 posts total