No clue how I came across this lengthy discussion. From 2022.
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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@nonoise & @mapman .....*sigh* yeah, same old is same yet again.....🤷♂️🤨 "...in a age of miracles and wonder, this is a long-distance call..." If one suspects disappointment lurks somewhere, it will be found....and another round ensues.... "It's never sounded this good before...but...." All is subject to stubborn pursuit of perfection. And treated as myth uncovered and fouled by the act of assuming it's IT.... ...note contemporary pun.... ;) |
How many times have you entered $50 to deposit in your bank account and it became $5000 because the banks server was 3000 miles away? We are just talking music here, not a lot of data and not hard to do no matter the miles away the disk is. When you watch (stream) an F1 race 10,000 miles away in 4K, how many times does Hamilton’s red Ferrari gets displayed in blue? 4K streaming is much more difficult than streaming a 16/44 song or a hires song.
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@rbstehno - too logical, don’t you know audio is special? |
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