Hi, Sounds like a reasonable question to me and it all comes down to belief. If you believe the result of compressing and uncompressing is the same as the original then there's no problem choosing the compressed version.
Now looking at your questions: 1) Why do I believe lossless compressions + decompression are 'perfect'. I didn't check the source code, I haven't actually compared before and after files. In fact the only check I have personally performed is that file sizes of the WAV before and after the process are the same. So why do I believe? a) firstly it is claimed to work b) I can hear no difference c) there are ways to check the process is perfect even if I haven't performed them d) I understand how to write my own test so I believe I could check myself 2) For food, why do I not believe? a) no one has ever claimed it b) I cannot conceive how it could work c) I believe that the 'information' encoded in the water cannot be preserved (ie location and energy of the water molecules) To take your analogy further, if someone could dehydrate a live mouse and then rehydrate the mouse back to a living active state I'd start to get much more comfortable about a ham sandwich! Finally, here's some beliefs that I think you have that you might not even have considered. These are all perfectly sound beliefs, but for the most part that's all they are until you have done some personal testing. (I believe them too and I haven't tested them!) 1) storage media doesn't matter, you believe slim server would work if the files were read from Hard Disk, CD ROM, DVD, or memory stick. 2) The quality, grade and type of ethernet cabling do not make any difference. 3) The operating system does not make any difference, you get the same result if you server files from a Windows PC, a MAC, a linux box, or Symbian PalmOs 4) Conversion from ISO format to WAV doesn't matter (one lossless format to another). What is stored on an audio CD is NOT wav files. 5) Renaming you WAV files makes no difference - this has already changed the structure of the information encoded on the storage media 6) Wearing a yellow hat on Tuesday does not improve the sound. I put in 6 deliberately simply to raise the point about why you believe it. I assume you have not done blind ABX tests with and without a yellow hat, yet you are able to be confident it makes no difference (as am I). So in summary, for IT we believe that lossless makes no difference because: 1) personal evidence gives no counter examples (we can't hear a difference and every test we have performed shows they are the same) 2) we have faith in the community that developed the tools 3) we believe we could independently test it if we chose to. That's all a bit deep and philosophical and paraphrases a lots of philosphy of science. But it's interesting to question even deeply held beliefs once in a while. Malcolm -- mwphoto http://www.last.fm/user/mwphoto/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ mwphoto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=652 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21700 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
