We Need To Talk About Ones And Zeroes

The primary goal of streaming/rental music services should be for discovering new artists/music.

If you like the album, buy it and pay the artist...not to mention permanent ownership.

If it’s only available in redbook CD, so be it...

If there is a 24bit studio master available, burn it on blu-ray and achieve the highest fidelity possible.

Getting into all the nitty gritty of error propagation, containment whatever and arguing it with all the supposed digital geniuses could drive someone nuts soon enough. No one here with the requisite engineering background hacked into or looked under the hood of everything to be sure of everything...

Yes but is it “high end” TCP/IP? 😬

Like any well engineered solution, the best systems are in fact built based on facts or rules first, then trusting your ears from there.  
 

Arguments for trusting your ears alone are flawed.   Your ears can only hear what is there, not what may be missing.  Facts and rules come first to help have best chance of covering all the bases first thereby giving your ears the best chance of being the most happy. 
 

@lalitk 

After perusing your virtual system following @mdalton ’s compliment of same, I would say that if my own system were anywhere near the state of evolution yours is in, I would likely be more open to evaluating components I currently consider secondary.

My own system would likely look very different than yours, and I suspect we enjoy different musical and listening styles. One thing they would probably have in common though is the NADAC stack. Why AES67 isn't better known / more prevalent in the audiophile world is beyond me.

It’s a beautiful system. Congratulations!

@devinplombier 

A person relies extensively on cut-and-pasting at the risk of appearing lazy and unintelligent.

... we all have access to google AI and we would know how to query it if we felt like it. Doing it on our behalf adds no value and merely pollutes the thread.

No one can be expected to read 2,000 words of google-generated drivel and I admit I did not - so if I missed something I apologize

I like Google AI because anyone can re-run a query - you are not reliant on what a single contributor 'knows', and can 'remember', and can 'articulate'.  It is not as if I  am so unintelligent and ignorant and lazy that I never contribute original content!

Unfortunately, it is obvious that many contributors here do not have much technical understanding or do even basic research.  Witness your own assertion that most network components do not have processors, though they clearly perform logic!

You now seem to agree that streaming is not guaranteed to be 100% perfect.  I have no idea whether this is audible (except for obvious drop-outs) but many people report hearing differences.  Data loss and un-corrected errors are one possible explanation.

@devinplombier 

I appreciate your kind words on my system. NADAC stack is indeed a very ‘special’ product. It’s a shame that they didn’t gain much traction in US market.  

Thank you for your thoughtful response. Agreed, our ears are limited to perceiving what is presented, not what might be absent or subtly compromised. We all are capable of listening but do we all perceive the information in same manner? Are we listening for bass or treble, detail or dynamics or do we strive for coherence, timing, tone, presence and emotions. I believe, we are also listening for what our audio system is not communicating or producing, right? 

I also agree that most claims of “transformational” improvements from passive digital components are almost certainly exaggerated, given bit-perfect nature of digital streaming. 

I’m all for exploration, but I’m also deeply skeptical of hyperbolic claims, especially when they come without context or proper a/b comparison. To me, It’s all about striking a delicate balance. 

As far as measurements, while they remain critical for getting the basics right, they don’t always reflect emotional or perceptual experiences. At the end of the day, everyone is free to chase what brings them joy. But I do firmly believe that our pursuit for a good sounding system benefits most when curiosity is anchored in reason and when we leave enough room for both exploration and skepticism to coexist.