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Please Educate Me

If I can’t find the answer here, I won’t find it anywhere. 

Something I’ve wondered about for a long time: The whole world is digital. Some huge percentage of our lives consists of ones and zeros. 

And with the exception of hi-fi, I don’t know of a single instance in which all of this digitalia isn’t yes/no, black/white, it works or it doesn’t. No one says, “Man, Microsoft Word works great on this machine,” or “The reds in that copy of Grand Theft Auto are a tad bright.” The very nature of digital information precludes such questions. 

Not so when it comes to hi-fi. I’m extremely skeptical about much that goes on in high end audio but I’ve obviously heard the difference among digital sources. Just because something is on CD or 92/156 FLAC doesn’t mean that it’s going to sound the same on different players or streamers. 

Conceptually, logically, I don’t know why it doesn’t. I know about audiophile-type concerns like timing and flutter. But those don’t get to the underlying science of my question. 

I feel like I’m asking about ABCs but I was held back in kindergarten and the computerized world isn’t doing me any favors. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do. I’ll be using Photoshop and I’ve got it dialed in just right. 
paul6001

Showing 1 response by onhwy61

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onhwy61
5,284 posts
 
The storage of information as bits makes no distinction about what the information actually is.  Your hard drive does not care whether the files are cat videos, financial data or files containing music.  It's the encoding and decoding of the analog signal into and out of digital that accounts for sonic differences.  The most common audio format is Pulse Code Modulation (PCM).  Furthermore, even within PCM there are different factors and technologies that effect sound quality.  One of the key factors in PCM is the clock.  A stable and accurate clock is necessary to properly encode/decode music.
Oh yeah, try not be such a dick with your next question -- just messing with ya'.
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