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Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

More FUD???

Hmmm, I haven't read Part 3 but do have Part 2 which contains a number of questionable assertions as well. (The whole subjective sound quality scoring these guys do seem totally ridiculous anyways.)

I seriously wonder whether the agenda here is to increase the amount of obfuscation and FUD around the "complexities" of computer audio.

However, digital brings with it 2 inconvenient truths for the industry:
1. A BIT IS A BIT. Anyone with understanding of how WAV, FLAC, APE, WV works knows that bit-perfect is bit-perfect. This is irrespective of how it's played back or what equipment it's stored in. There is no "jitter" in the file or other variable to lead one to question the integrity of the stored audio. It's as good as that CD or hi-res download is ever going to be.

2. PIRACY. 100% copies are easily done. Exact replicas of the original. Something obviously IMPOSSIBLE in analogue.

I think most folks on the street know this (and probably don't care) but the industry will fight in any way it knows how - especially among the vocal and possibly more affluent audiophile crowd. Ultimately there's money on the line. With the resurgence in articles and interest in LP, why not pump up analogue again?

I believe that the reason TAS runs articles like these is NOT to promote computer audio. They want to sell something. To put doubt into the minds of the average consumer (perhaps the older analogue crowd?) about the simple truths around digital... Sure, you can pit one DAC against another, or consider jitter in mechanical playback devices like CD players, even jitter in digital interfaces like TosLink/coaxial/AES - how much of this is significant is left to the audiophile's ears and imagination. However, once you start questioning the *digital storage format* itself (FLAC) which is designed to be bit-perfect and has not been shown otherwise in the last DECADE (as if FLAC is anything new!), this IMO is either denial, miseducation, delusion or outright fraud.

Having said this, I still buy the occasional TAS off the shelf (like the Product Of The Year issue last month) to see what's new and to be entertained, but in terms of credibility in technical matters? I've left that camp years ago.


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Archimago's Musings: A 'more objective' audiophile blog.


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