honestly, I think there are folks who champion high end streamers whose arguments are the functional equivalent of those who call themselves “Creationists”. It’s essentially pseudo-science.
We Need To Talk About Ones And Zeroes
Several well-respected audiophiles in this forum have stated that the sound quality of hi-res streamed audio equals or betters the sound quality of traditional digital sources.
These are folks who have spent decades assembling highly desirable systems and whose listening skills are beyond reproach. I for one tend to respect their opinions.
Tidal is headquartered in NYC, NY from Norwegian origins. Qobuz is headquartered in Paris, France. Both services are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud infrastructure services giant that commands roughly one third of the world's entire cloud services market.
AWS server farms are any audiophile's nightmare. Tens of thousands of multi-CPU servers and industrial-grade switches crammed in crowded racks, miles of ordinary cabling coursing among tens of thousands of buzzing switched-mode power supplies and noisy cooling fans. Industrial HVAC plants humming 24/7.
This, I think, demonstrates without a doubt that audio files digitally converted to packets of ones and zeroes successfully travel thousands of miles through AWS' digital sewer, only to arrive in our homes completely unscathed and ready to deliver sound quality that, by many prominent audiophiles' account, rivals or exceeds that of $5,000 CD transports.
This also demonstrates that digital transmission protocols just work flawlessly over noise-saturated industrial-grade lines and equipment chosen for raw performance and cost-effectiveness.
This also puts in perspective the importance of improvements deployed in the home, which is to say in the last ten feet of our streamed music's multi-thousand mile journey.
No worries, I am not about to argue that a $100 streamer has to sound the same as a $30,000 one because "it's all ones and zeroes".
But it would be nice to agree on a shared-understanding baseline, because without it intelligent discourse becomes difficult. The sooner everyone gets on the same page, which is to say that our systems' digital chains process nothing less and nothing more than packets of ones and zeroes, the sooner we can move on to genuinely thought-provoking stuff like, why don't all streamers sound the same? Why do cables make a difference? Wouldn't that be more interesting?
Showing 6 responses by mdalton
one of my favorite threads ever. starts with servers - one guy claims servers need a couple weeks burn-in before their sound is optimal - but then makes a hard right on page 3 to switches, where one guy explains that the reason you can’t hear a difference between a $20 switch and a $700 switch is that you have to spend at least $3500 on a switch before there’s a difference. Not making this up: |
You know I love your system, and I’ve always enjoyed your contributions, but I am gonna have to disagree on this one. Am reminded of Ptolemy. For gosh sakes, everybody watched the sun go around the earth, and that fit nicely with some of our religious beliefs. So when Ptolemy made the math to back up a geocentric model of the solar system work, it took 1400 years before we were finally able to get the science right - thank you Copernicus! (Kyrie Irving has reasserted a flat earth view, but that’s probably for a different convo, lol!). So I think it’s pretty important to start with a sound theory and understanding of the science before we start trying to convince ourselves that we’re hearing stuff that, while it fits our religion, threatens to take us back to a pre-Copernicun world. And I think that’s why the OP started this thread. |
Cheers my friend. Btw, I’ve recently discovered MJ Acoustics, a UK company that specializes in subwoofers. Long story, but they’re custom finishing a sub to match my restored Altecs in my vintage system. If that project is as successful as I’m hoping, I am contemplating adding the new Fyne super tweeter. Which gets me to this question: How do you feel about your Tannoy super tweeter? (Apologies to @devinplombier for this temporary high jack)
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Here’s a Fyne white paper on their super tweeter. Notice that it has measurements and actual citations, including to peer reviewed papers published in the Audio Engineering Society Journal. So while there is some controversy among some audiophiles regarding the efficacy of super tweeters, Fyne has actually done what I’ve criticized switch, server and streamer manufacturers for not doing.
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