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.
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?
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"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.
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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. |
What are digital signals? They're really not 0's and 1's. They're nothing more than an analog representation, voltage differences, of a 1 and a 0. Any significant change in the voltages impacts what the voltages represent, let alone their timing, ex. reclocking. It's a wee bit more complicated than just 0's and 1's. |
@ghdprentice said... "All the sound quality stuff happens after being caught and translated into analog." Yes, this! What the OP was illustrating by his description of the infrastructure used to support some of the popular streaming platforms is, we're all drinking from essentially the same well. We're all pretty much getting the same one's and zeros. Whether that is "good or bad" I'll leave to the reader. What that does however is level the playing field when it comes to streaming. How we each individually handle this homogenious supply of media is what ultimately differentiates what we hear. Barring obvious impediments like a noisy switch in the chain or other such physical issues, the stream will be exactly the same. Where it begins to differ is in how each consumer, us, handles it. Be it hard wiring directly from a cable modem or using wifi or perhaps fiber, the changes start there. Now add in the infinite combinations of streamers, DACs, preamps, amps, integrateds, speakers, heaphones, room treatments and dare I say it, cables, and we get what we get. This is analogous to playing two identical LPs on two different turntables with different cartriges... Think about it. To me the beauty of this avocation of ours is we can each tailor the sound until we get what we find most satisfying according to our tastes and budget. And there are limitless, space and budget constraints aside, possibilities to try. And again, as always, I say... Happy listening. |
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