Computer Storage - Best Practices

[fas42]

Bit identical files will sound identical if the mechanism, and procedure for playing them is absolutely identical. Change that process in what seems a trivial aspect could be enough to have an impact - e.g. comparing A to B, there should be an equal weighting to playing A, then B; versus, playing B, then A.

 

Time variant factors are a big part of hearing differences once setups are working to a certain level, and can be a nightmare to sort out, properly. There are obvious elements like how warmed up the speaker suspensions are, but just about every area of a rig can be sensitive to changes over time; unfortunately, right at the edge where sometimes it's hard to say what has changed - but, it is audible.

[fas42]

3 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

whether you 'need' a special low noise PS (and a LPS or good SMPS) may depend not just on the characteristics of your DAC, but on the type of music you listen to most -- I suspect that symphonic music might want lower noise than say Legends of the Wah-wah Pedal

 

What many may be surprised to find out, is that heavy duty rock music actually benefits more from higher transparency, and lower playback noise - than classical recordings. It's relatively easy to get symphonic works coming across well; but bells and whistles pop and driving pieces are a greater test of a rig's capability - the tremendous level of detail and complexity of musical ideas that comes through can take one's breath away. Only a super clean reproduction chain removes the normal playback sludge enough, to properly showcase what was captured.

[fas42]

Where science gets into trouble is when some of the current spokemen for "what is known" proclaim that they are able to close the book on some area - "all that is important is now fully understood!" ... this is the egg in one's face, that keeps repeating, decade after decade.

[fas42]

All digital circuitry and processing requires analogue electrical processes to be part of the package - an obvious one are the power supplies needed. And it just turns out that one has to be scrupulously careful in how this is implemented, by preventing the digital areas from generating excess noise, and/or shielding the analogue circuitry from such.

 

The more capable the rig is in revealing fine detail in the recording, the more likely the ear will be able to hear to pick subtle changes in the playback quality; because sufficient isolation has still not been achieved. Just saying it should be adequate, because that's the experience in other fields, doesn't guarantee that.