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Bits Are Bits, Right?

So I'm currently heading down the path of exploring which CD-Rs sound best in my CD player, along with what burn speeds sound best and what CD burners make the best CDs. I already know from my research that the more accurately the pits are placed on the CD (e.g. less jitter in the recorded data), the better chance I stand at getting the CD to sound good. There is a counter-argument to this idea that goes something like this: "Bits are bits and as long as the CD player can read them, the accuracy of the spacing doesn't matter because everything is thrown into a buffer which removes the effect of any jitter written into the data during burning." I know I don't agree with that logic, but for the life of me I can't remember the technical reasons. I know I used to know. Haha! 

So who here knows why buffers don't solve all of our problems in the digital realm? How come timing accuracy matters in the stages before the data buffer?
mkgus

Showing 1 response by georgehifi

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georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
"Bits are bits and as long as the CD player can read them

Not really, the error correction is a constantly working part, if the error correction is working hard and guesses whether to throw a 0 or a 1 into the bits it can’t read, it’s got a 50% chance of getting it right, because it always subs the one it can’t read with whatever came before it.

Here are three closeups of an of the shelf "retail CD" (left) and a "burnt one" (middle) and a "re-writable one" (right)
Which do you think is going to give the more errors.
https://ibb.co/5nXB6bC

Same happens with streaming and with H/D stored stuff, there are always read errors to be substituted

Cheers George

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