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Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

There is no "system engineering" of consumer audio.

"My opinion is that since the USB specs apparently have no provision for this type of an effect then the engineering of the entire system gets called into question when differences do appear"

The USB spec is concerned with transferring bits reliably. It is not concerned with prevention of noise that goes along with those bits except if that noise becomes excessive and causes the bits to get changed or TV or radio reception to have politically unacceptable levels of interference. It says nothing about the misapplication of USB technology where noise must not be transferred into critical analog electronics.

The place for system engineering is at the analog to digital boundary. That's where there should be (but presently isn't) systems engineering that allows the maximum amount of noise allowed by the USB specifications to be received, the bits extracted and the remaining noise attenuated to the level where its affect on the analog output of the digital to analog converter meets the expected quality level (which will depend on the expected cost and performance of the product).

If the phrase "systems engineering" were remotely applicable to consumer audio, this would all be very clear. However, there has never been any systems engineering associated with consumer audio. In the end it comes down to the audiphile being the systems engineer and doing the systems integration. This is the way of the marketplace. If someone doesn't want to do this and hopes to get a well balanced system he will either have to use an immense amount of trial and error, hire a consultant, or pick a vendor who provides a more complete solution. Audiophiles can not even agree on the most basic question of what their systems ought to do. One group thinks that it should play back the music as it was recorded. Another group thinks that the system should play back music in a way that "pleases" its owner. It is not possible to do any kind of systems engineering without requirements on what a system is supposed to do.

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


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