2. digital
  3. 194442-192372

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?

devinplombier
mitch2
4,244 posts
 

Not exactly sure what the goal is here. 

My understanding of what you are saying is, in short, that we all receive basically the same digital signal when streamed through our ISPs and that the digital signal is of sufficient quality that when converted and played through an adequate home music system the result can be very satisfying.  Is that what you want us to agree on?

I am not sure why it is important that we agree.  The evidence shows it to be true or otherwise why would so many audio enthusiasts have given up CDPs and turntables in order to have streaming as their sole music source.  The evidence also shows that modifications to the playback chain, i.e., galvanic isolation, reclocking, power supply isolation, etc., can further affect/improve the end result of what we hear, whether or not those modifications change the 1s and 0s.

Have I missed the point?

In any event, as always, we vote with our wallets so, whether or not we consensually agree on the technical aspects of what is happening, the general purchase trends will tell the tale.

sns
3,730 posts
 

In order to test for this one would need to directly connect their streamer to a server with locally stored files, no storage in cloud. This means server with original files at some record company/mastering concern/etc. Ain't never going to happen. And again I'll go back to analogy to power grid, audiophile insistence on providing clean grid/clean streaming chain is of no concern to these entities. Since this the case I guess we need to provide for our own power grid and local storage of Qobuz, Tidal, other music services massive libraries. Again, this ain't gonna happen. Point is why should we bother with things we can't change.

sns
3,730 posts
 

And we have a most obvious comparison. How does one  cd rips in local storage compare to their streams?  Many report, and I agree their streams are equal to the cd rips, what does this say about the importance of server farms, clouds.

rooze's avatar
rooze
650 posts
 

"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."

What's a traditional digital source, a CD Player? If so, are we comparing apples with apples? You said hi-res, so I assume you're talking about something other than CDs 16/44.1 - therefore not really comparing like for like.

Anyway, I "stream" from files on a network hard drive and rarely from online streaming services, because in my experience even their hi-res files mostly sound bang average, about on par with CD.

 

ghdprentice
7,720 posts
 

TCPIP does a great job of transporting bits and checking that they are correct. Your router receives them (or they are caught coming off a CD transport in the case of a CD Player) and adds a bunch of electrical noise... they are processed in a quiet vibration free environment... or not,  and retimed. All the sound quality stuff happens after being caught and translated into analog. 

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