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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. 
paul6001
Ag insider logo xs@2x
cleeds
5,967 posts
 
jjss49
there are so many people on this board who feel they are entitled to be nasty and be critical while expressing little respect and courtesy for others, it is pitiful ...
It is actually worse than that - for some of the people you’re referring to it is actually their personal style. They enjoy calling other users snowflakes or libtards or whatever and I’m convinced it’s one of the prime reasons they post to Agon. It’s a way to vent their inner frustrations and pain. Probably one of them will respond to this post and accuse me of "virtue signaling," which is one of their favorite complaints.
arch2
308 posts
 
If you feel the questions require time consuming or difficult response there is a very simple solution; don't respond. We as Audiogon members are not forced to respond to every question that pops up on this forum. Sort of takes care of that issue. Or we can try to help out members who aren't sure of the best way to go about getting the information they are looking for.

mapman: "It’s an imperfect world. People should not feel constrained in how they conduct a legitimate quest to learn. Nobody is obligated to reply.

Good manners always apply."    Bingo!  
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,173 posts
 
There is only one mathematical law in the universe:

Treat all like one....

It is the only mathematical absolute law....

It refer to the deep mystery of the One and the internal many...

It is the basis of scripture of all religion... Religious only forgot it and add many "fancies" of their own to this law...

Scientists has not discovered it for the moment but are on the verge to discover it...





«Mathematics never lied»- Anonymus Smith

« You just said that love and numbers theory are the same thing? Did'nt you?»-Groucho Marx
jgoldrick's avatar
jgoldrick
138 posts
 
Note that Excel and Word act differently on a Mac than a Windows machine, and not at all on Linux.  So there are differences from one machine to another.  And one may prefer one machine over another based on those differences.  Granted, we audiophiles take things to an extreme, but maybe accountants prefer certain processors.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,236 posts
 
The storage of information as bits makes no distinction about what the information actually is.  Your hard drive does not care whether the files are cat videos, financial data or files containing music.  It's the encoding and decoding of the analog signal into and out of digital that accounts for sonic differences.  The most common audio format is Pulse Code Modulation (PCM).  Furthermore, even within PCM there are different factors and technologies that effect sound quality.  One of the key factors in PCM is the clock.  A stable and accurate clock is necessary to properly encode/decode music.
Oh yeah, try not be such a dick with your next question -- just messing with ya'.
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