Lossless Files Vs CD's

Steven, this is not the point of the argument! This is exactly how people get derailed in their findings of the truth!) I'm talking about apples and you talking about potatoes. I'm not disputing jitter or whatever what is happening in playback. I assume (cause i don't know for a fact) that you right on that and if you had the original files which were copied to the CD by recording companies,it would play much better through comp because its jitter free or whatever. But this is not the point here. The point here is that you loosing the quality of the sound (SQ) right there when you ripping/converting PCM files from CD in to WAV on your comp. And said loss of SQ can't be compensated by jitter free playback. Whatever musical micro nuances lost in conversion they gone for good and you can't resurrect them by play it back by allegedly jitter free way.)

05-26-14: Dvavc
The point here is that you loosing the quality of the sound (SQ) right there when you ripping/converting PCM files from CD in to WAV on your comp.

FWIW, I see no technical basis for that contention (assuming the rip is done with software that assures bit perfect results), and it is certainly not proven by the experiment you described earlier, as I had indicated in my previous post. Nor am I aware of any other reported experiment supporting that contention.

Regards,
-- Al

I absolutely agree with Al (as usual). Good ripping program can be set to read the same sector forever until checksum is valid. If anything, copy is better than original, becoming exact studio data while CDP often interpolates.

In addition to often better quality, as very experienced Audioengr stated, it is matter of convenience as well, not to mention that digital copy cannot be scratched and can be protected from fire, theft etc. (backup).

Once bit perfect ripping is done the only thing (other than DAC itself) that affect quality is jitter.

I would offer this suggestion to you - when in doubt - read Almarg explanation. All people on this forum can testify to that.

"The point here is that you loosing the quality of the sound (SQ) right there when you ripping/converting PCM files from CD in to WAV on your comp. And said loss of SQ can't be compensated by jitter free playback."

That is simply not true. The data fields in the digital copy are identical to the original CD data, assuming that you ripped it properly with a C2 error correcting drive and used Accurate Rip in the ripper.

Some playback software does muck with the data in various ways, such as changing the offset or doing resampling, but these players are well-known and are avoided by most audiophiles.

If you want examples of how some rippers, formats or players compromise the SQ, I can do this at Newport show after hours. Those that have been following computer audio for a while understand which of these to avoid, so the SQ issue with these is really a non-issue for the most part. It's just a matter of education.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

"I would offer this suggestion to you - when in doubt - read Almarg explanation. All people on this forum can testify to that."

I can also testify to that. I don't post allot in here, but I do read a ton. And Al always has by far the most well thought out and technically correct answers.

And both Kijanki and Audioengr are also very well respected here as well. Believe me, they aren't trying to pull the wool over your eyes, in fact, they'd very much like to help us all get to the best sound possible.

I heard Steve's system last year at Newport and can't wait to check out his room next Saturday as well.