Bits bits bits from Upscale Audio

“Bits are bits” happens to be the same argument many folks use to “prove” that the sound of CDs cannot be changed by CD fluids, or by color markers like the Green Pen or Purple Pen, by using holographic foils on the CD, by isolating the CD player, by reversing the digital cable (directionality), by damping the CD itself, by beveling the CD outer edge (to correct out-of-round), by demagnetizing the CD or by demagnetizing the digital cable.

“Bits are bits” is also used to “prove” that all CDs that are produced using the same digital file sound identical.

It’s even more complicated than the article describes. The pits and lands of varying lengths on the CD do not (rpt not) represent the musical waveform. They represent predetermined discrete sets of digital data specified in the Redbook standard that must be further processed and assembled before the digital data can represent the musical waveform. There are about 10 predetermined discrete sets of 1s and 0s.