We Need To Talk About Ones And Zeroes
Several well-respected audiophiles in this forum have stated that the sound quality of hi-res streamed audio equals or betters the sound quality of traditional digital sources.
These are folks who have spent decades assembling highly desirable systems and whose listening skills are beyond reproach. I for one tend to respect their opinions.
Tidal is headquartered in NYC, NY from Norwegian origins. Qobuz is headquartered in Paris, France. Both services are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud infrastructure services giant that commands roughly one third of the world's entire cloud services market.
AWS server farms are any audiophile's nightmare. Tens of thousands of multi-CPU servers and industrial-grade switches crammed in crowded racks, miles of ordinary cabling coursing among tens of thousands of buzzing switched-mode power supplies and noisy cooling fans. Industrial HVAC plants humming 24/7.
This, I think, demonstrates without a doubt that audio files digitally converted to packets of ones and zeroes successfully travel thousands of miles through AWS' digital sewer, only to arrive in our homes completely unscathed and ready to deliver sound quality that, by many prominent audiophiles' account, rivals or exceeds that of $5,000 CD transports.
This also demonstrates that digital transmission protocols just work flawlessly over noise-saturated industrial-grade lines and equipment chosen for raw performance and cost-effectiveness.
This also puts in perspective the importance of improvements deployed in the home, which is to say in the last ten feet of our streamed music's multi-thousand mile journey.
No worries, I am not about to argue that a $100 streamer has to sound the same as a $30,000 one because "it's all ones and zeroes".
But it would be nice to agree on a shared-understanding baseline, because without it intelligent discourse becomes difficult. The sooner everyone gets on the same page, which is to say that our systems' digital chains process nothing less and nothing more than packets of ones and zeroes, the sooner we can move on to genuinely thought-provoking stuff like, why don't all streamers sound the same? Why do cables make a difference? Wouldn't that be more interesting?
I do not believe it does, unless overall network capacity is being strained as @jeffbij indicated. I've been reading a bit on Switch X, and that's definitely a good one. More on it later 😃 |
There's this new video from Paul McGowen of PS Audio that addresses the closing of the gap between streaming and CD playback. He says it all boils down to galvanic isolation. More food for thought. I have no dog in this fight. All the best, |
Galvanic isolation is the bare minimum, vast majority of higher end dacs and streamers have taken care of it, grounds contamination is a well known issue.
While attending to many of these network and other streaming issues often result in incremental improvements, some may only be audible in extremely high resolution/transparent systems and streaming chains. Whatever the case, a good reference for determining the quality of one's streaming chain is to compare it to your physical media, no reason it can't compete on a level playing field with cd's or ripped cd's on local storage. Get you clocking/timing optimized and it can compete with very nice vinyl setups.
As for the Dejitter switch, I suspect this won't be the last switch attending to this issue. We can debate the theoreticals, but in the end I also rely on empirical evidence in coming to conclusions, I fully expect I will try this or another similar switch at some point. |
Well said! I agree that galvanic isolation is essential and should be intrinsically baked into any serious DAC or streamer these days. Ground contamination and timing errors have a way of creeping in subtly, and you’re spot on; the higher the system’s resolution, the more these small tweaks and upstream changes can reveal themselves. I also like your point about comparing streaming to physical media — it’s a great benchmark. If the chain is dialed in, high-quality streaming can absolutely go toe-to-toe with local files or even well-done vinyl. I’ve experienced and achieved that in my setup. As for Dejitter switch and any other audiophile dubbed switches, I share your curiosity. My personal experience says otherwise. After experimenting with a very high end switch (Telegartner M12 Gold switch) and few sub $1K switches, I am now of opinion, less is more. I found audiophile switches redundant or have very minimal impact as long as we have addressed galvanic isolation between network devices, effectively breaking ground loops and blocking electrical noise from traveling through Ethernet cables. |
Too often, people only consider an item’s primary purpose and judge it by how well it accomplishes that purpose, but that’s a limited, it not somewhat blinkered approach. Indeed, by that token no one should buy a Patek Philippe because a lowly iphone keeps perfect time and the Patek sure doesn’t, so Patek Philippe must be snake oil. Of course, accurate timekeeping has long since ceased to be the raison d’être of fine watches. Therefore their secondary purposes of beauty and craftsmanship have superceded their primary one of timekeeping. Similarly, if a person doesn’t like to look at items of low or average quality in their home, then a well-designed network switch milled from solid aluminum and fitted with the best components and ports available makes sense. If the goal for that network switch is to improve sound quality, however, disappointment is bound to ensue.
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