I don't know the answers as to why digital sound often comes off poorly, in the sense of saying "Aha, I can hear that the thingymabob isn't screwed tightly enough into the whatchamacallit!!". But what is very obvious is that the SQ of digital reproduction is quite fragile - a small amount of "wrongness" goes a long, long way, in its impact on the perceived quality - can cause playback to degrade to a remarkable degree, for no clear, easily recognised reason.
I've found that the best approach is to always be aware of this aspect of digital playback problems, and be prepared to strongly push forward even when the sound is dire - if experiments are done, then the chances are improved for locating the errant gremlin - and good sound will suddenly snap into focus. The quality can go from obnoxious, to brilliant with precisely the right "adjustment" having been made - this is extremely frustrating behaviour to deal with at times, but knowing that it's just the way the beast is, does help with the annoyance at it being like that,
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I've found that the best approach is to always be aware of this aspect of digital playback problems, and be prepared to strongly push forward even when the sound is dire - if experiments are done, then the chances are improved for locating the errant gremlin - and good sound will suddenly snap into focus. The quality can go from obnoxious, to brilliant with precisely the right "adjustment" having been made - this is extremely frustrating behaviour to deal with at times, but knowing that it's just the way the beast is, does help with the annoyance at it being like that,
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I can quote numerous other mastering engineers who will say the opposite.
Read a couple of posts by Bob Katz here, for example:
When reducing bitdepth from 64-bit to 24-bit in ASIO, does JRiver....
I hope he doesn't need an introduction
Also, take a look at this excerpt from Waves L2 hardware box manual. IDR is their dithering/noise shaping algorithm.
Attachments
1. Ease of use
2. Manufactured CD as archival medium will outlive any other digital storage medium, be it flash card, SSD or rotating one. Back-ups? No, thanks.
3. I don't want to see that 'stinkin' radiating gigahertz device (PC) anywhere near my analog system.
4. I don't want radiating SMPS anywhere near the sensitive analog path.
5. I don't want to deal with external DAC with its PLL/VCO jitter problems.
Is that enough?
I hope he doesn't need an introduction
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I hope Dick actually reads the post and considers the source.
Well my car will play cassettes as well as CDs, but really prefer the discs. And I like having shelves of music. That marks my demographic I realise! Oh and that I don't change cars very often.
I use the term CD because that is what I am playing..... CD's. I am talking about CD (16/44.1) being played vs 24/96 files being played. I've said this numerous times.
THx-RNMarsh
I hope Dick actually reads the post and considers the source.
OK I just read it. I'll email him.... if there are any differences when he gets a 24/96 files to be mastered for HDTracks et al.
Might as well ask him if he thinks there are any audible differences between 16/44.1 dithered and 24/96 that he can hear.
THx-RNMarsh
Just double checked -- I use the CD player's fiber optic output to the BenchMark 2 input.
??
THx-RNMarsh
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What's absurd is to refer to a particular bit depth and sampling rate as a MEDIUM. Compact Disc is a MEDIUM. Compact Disc is inherently 16/44.1, but 16/44.1 is not inherently Compact Disc. You can store a 16/44.1 file on whatever medium you choose.
se
I come from the aerospace mentality of getting at least 15 years out a car. Mine is only 13 years old so a bit of life left in it yet
I had the unfortunate experience of my BMW on board computer system s**ting the bed. Everyone involved was clueless so I went all the way to the other side and bought a Kia Soul. To be fair I have said before wanking over cars is about as interesting to me as watching paint dry.
Then how can you possibly go on about 16/44.1 being inadequate compared to 24/96 when you're not even playing 16/44.1 files that are stored on the same medium and played back through the same system as your 24/96 files, but instead are spinning up physical CDs on a $300 CD player?
se
my dream is to have a clockwork lotus 7 clone again. But that won't happen for a while. My passat is the last before they went overly electronic so what wiring gremlins its had I can diagnose and fix, mainly from known design faults causing leaks. As such when it does die not sure what I would replace it with that would give such sterling service.
But I do like to drive and so hate most things produced since 1985 as they drive for you.
But I do like to drive and so hate most things produced since 1985 as they drive for you.
And indeed that is relevant ... at the Sydney audio show a good sounding system fell off its perch, sound quality wise, when the Oppo player was used to feed the DAC rather than the laptop - the electronics of the CD transport were doing just enough to add a bit of poo into the picture ...
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