On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:24:44 -0700, Iordani wrote
(in article <fudnus0299f@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
> I have a sound system which I'm very pleased with.
> (System Audio Explorer speakers and Musical Fidelity A300 amp and A3
> CD-player)
>
> If I were to convert my CDs to some lossless file format and store them
on
> an (external) hard disk drive and then play them using computer and some
> media player to feed my amp, would there be any theoretical or real
> difference in sound quality compared to using my CD player.
>
> Answers and/or pointers highly appreciated.
There are several aspects to this question. First of all, I have read in a
number of sources that using a lossless compression scheme (such as Apple
Lossless in iTunes) can theoretically result in BETTER sound than one can
get
playing back the CD on a CD player. Apparently, the reason for this is
that
the lossless algorithms, when "ripping" a CD will try a digital word with
errors over and over again until it gets the word error free (most errors
on
CD playback are random rather than hard, I'm told). This means that the
compressed file is error free when finished. If it's true that the
playback
sound quality of a CD is determined by the number of interpolated errors
incurred on playback (which I do not know as a fact **), then, all else
being
equal, the uncompressed lossless file should, again, theoretically, be
better
than CD. I can't comment on this one way or another, but I can tell you
how I
do the computer music server routine and I'm more than pleased with the
results.
I rip CDs using ALC (Apple Lossless Compression) and store the music on
iTunes. My computer is connected to an 802.11N wireless router. In my
listening room, I have an Apple TV box connected to my big-screen TV both
audio and video. BUT, my stereo system is completely separate from my home
theater system. To get the music to that, I use a long glass fiber TOSLINK
cable which connects to my Assemblage DAC 2.6 and D2D-1 Sample-rate
converter
which I have set to 96 KHz up-sampling and the DAC is a 24-bit unit. This
setup works great because the digital to analog conversion is NOT taking
place in the computer and thus is not dependent upon the questionable
quality
of either a computer's on-board sound circuitry or that of a sound card.
Also, by using the Apple TV and an outboard high-quality DAC setup, one is
doing the decoding far removed from the computer with all of its clock
signals and internal RF hash. One does NOT need a Mac to do this, a
Windows
PC will work just fine. Merely download iTunes for Windows from the Apple
site and buy yourself an Apple TV box for US$229. You can also stream HD
movies and videos via this box, Access U-Tube on your TV set, and view
your
digital pictures in HD on your HDTV. So, its a well spent $229.
Whether this results in "better than CD" sound I don't know. My CD player
(A
Sony XA777ES SACD player) sounds great and so do the Assemblage units. But
I
must say that playback from the lossless compression through my computer
certainly sounds at least as good as playing the CD through the CD player
and
is certainly more convenient. I can choose the CD I want to listen to from
my
easy chair.
** I used to have a Meridian CD player that had an "error re****ter" built
in
to it. It was a series of LEDs across the front of the unit which flashed
in
response to errors. The more errors encountered the more LEDs that lit-up.
One LED counted full interpolation errors. All I can tell you is that it
was
quite a light show (This was in the late 1980's) and one wondered at the
time
how CD could even work with so many errors.
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