item_audio;691675 Wrote: > > > Equally inescapably, though, when you chain together a bunch of boards > and power supplies and thousands of noise-producing components, they > are creating a very complex electrical environment, in which tiny > fluctuations and amplified and broadcast, creating chaotic feedback > loops. Anything that IS different in that environment may sound > different. > > So, FLAC v WAV? Same data, of course. But a different realtime playback > environment because of on-the-fly decompression and different file > handling. ITunes v JPlay? Again, same data, modified playback > environment. Mac v Windows? Same data, dissimilar playback environment. > Clean linear v noisy stock Squeezebox power supply? Same data, not the > same stuff happening during music reproduction at all. >
Sure, what you're saying is true. Every "performance" is different and little differences could be perceptible. But these differences you speak of I believe are of such small magnitude like the atmospheric pressure different than last night's auditioning, the ambient temperature was off 1 degree, you gained 5 pounds after dinner and filled up the room more, etc. that most people would consider this -within the standard deviation of daily living and experience-. This is not even taking into account psychological state of flux in day-to-day life! I know some of the examples above appear ridiculous and trivial, but why do we so easily point fingers like "maybe the frangmented HD messes up jitter..." which IMO is likely just as trivial? Unless there is proof that such a thing is an issue (ie. at least be reproducible if not measurable - like comparing to an SSD). Unless I'm missing something, my understanding of reality is that bit-perfect file CANNOT sound different to the extent that I should ever worry about it - any perceptible significant difference -beyond the usual day-to-day fluctuations- has to do with the equipment or the listener, not the data/file format. If indeed the TAS article is to be trusted in this one aspect, then I would say the authors are either using sub par equipment and too incompetent to fix their gear so bit-accurate music sounds like it should, or they have awful psychological insight into their own mental state (not to say any one of us has full insight, but at least many of us acknowledge that blind testing is important). Ahhhh, whatever... Off to enjoy the night with the family and maybe some tunes once the kids are sleep :-) -- Archimago ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Archimago's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2207 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=93549 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
