Gap vs. Gapless. What’s the big deal?

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I’m just now looking into streaming. Haven’t done anything yet. But I keep reading about gap vs. gapless playback and I don’t see where it’s that big of a deal if there is a few seconds of pause between tracks.

When listening to a symphony there is almost always a pause between movements. I’ve been to live concerts where the pause is even longer than a few seconds. Sometimes five to ten seconds. Depends on what the conductor wants. And it’s a good thing.

So why is such a big deal being made out of this for home playback? I don’t get it.
 
Let's just ask if mistimed gaps in an opera or oratorio are annoying.

The only streaming I've done so far is with Internet Radio. And I haven't heard any gaps in music with it.

But perhaps I don't understand this gap vs gapless phenomenon, yet.

I have the impression that the issue only occurs between tracks of a recording. Are you saying that a gap could occur within a track. There could actually be a short period of silence in the music itself?
 
When listening to a symphony there is almost always a pause between movements. I’ve been to live concerts where the pause is even longer than a few seconds. Sometimes five to ten seconds. Depends on what the conductor wants. And it’s a good thing.

So why is such a big deal being made out of this for home playback? I don’t get it.

A live symphony will have a few seconds of relative quiet between movements but there will still be some sound there to be heard (ambient noise, people fidgeting, etc.), in contrast, non-gapless playback will have moments of absolute dead silence. Some find the abrupt transition from quiet to absolute silence and back distracting. Maybe the difference is in listening to the music vs. listening to the sound?
 
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I find the gaps annoying because, as Galu mentions, there is often ambient sound that carries over from track to track. And on many Jazz, Pop and Rock albums there is a flow between tracks and even crossfades, that a gap destroys.

And then there are countless live Jazz recordings where the into to a song is on the track of the previous song. :xeye: I understand why it's done on CD, but if you are mixing up tracks it pretty awkward.
 
I have the impression that the issue only occurs between tracks of a recording. Are you saying that a gap could occur within a track. There could actually be a short period of silence in the music itself?

Yes - take for example the transition between 3rd and 4th movements of Beethoven's 5th symphony. There isn't actually a gap there. Same with a couple of the movements of Elgar's Enigma Variations - between variations 8 and 9 (Nimrod) there's a sustained pianissimo 'pivot' note that renders a sublime modulation that always sends shivers down my spine. Without gapless playback that effect would be completely destroyed I reckon.

I could probably think of other examples where 'tracks' aren't between movements, rather between sections (Verdi's Requiem comes to mind) but perhaps you get the picture by now.
 
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