Archimago wrote: > > 2. If we strive for the IDEAL - then good equipment that is bit-perfect > *should* sound inaudible even with this small amount of processing to > convert ALAC --> WAV or FLAC --> WAV or whatever given the same > DAC/analogue output system! Like I said before, hearing a difference for > real (not just psychological bias) is NOT good and is an indicator of > something wrong.
Not to deviate from the original debate but just to mention the complexity of the HiFi sound capture and reproduction, I would avoid the expression "bit-perfect" but rather call it "bit-unperfect". Bit is digital - not real - world and already translates irremediable sound alteration that truncates the signal as the result of the quantification applied during PCM conversion. I think it is also wrong to oppose the "real" from the "psychological". They are both linked tighly together when it comes to music perception - we are not machines! An infinitesimal signal difference could result in total different perception of the music from an individual to another. And it may have nothing to do with the strict ear sensitivity but rather with how our brain interpret or react to the signal which leads to emotion, etc. It has also something to do with our own experience or what some people call ear education. 10 years ago I was listening to a lot of mp3 and personnaly could not see distinctly the difference with a CD. Now I have my music in flac and when I try to listen to mp3 music streamed from Internet radio I find it almost unbearable. Yet my ears have probably lost a lot of their - scientifically measurable! - sensitivity since that time but that is largly compensated by what I know the real music should sound like. So I would not underestimate the possible impact caused by any difference in the signal process chain inside an electronic equipment. After all, why do the amplifiers have a "source direct" which switch off the display and apply a shorter path for the signal? is it also "an indicator of something wrong"? At the end everybody is free to choose its own threshold for optimal quality. People will also argue on the differences between cd vs vynil, cd vs sacd, spotify 320kbits vs Qobuz, PCM 16 bit vs 24 bits, etc... Where is your limit, guys? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chrobrego's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=15230 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=98630 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
