Computer Audiophile Discussion (split from Gungnir Multibit Not Impressed thread)

They claim that even brand of memory modules and motherboards have effect on sound quality:

 

Opinions trying to be passed off as fact because they're in a presentation?

 

Yep, my response to that is "interesting indeed" because I like to keep an open mind. Although I think we can safely say at this point that every molecule in a computer can affect the sound, so singling out RAM and MB seems redundant.

 

I don't think that's safe to say.
A lot of things more complex and vital pass through computers all around the world every second, and they all (statistically speaking; excepting actual faulty hardware) come through identical to how they went in. The only parts that matter are the ones that PURPOSELY change data. This means, to audio specifically, software (codecs, resamplers) and rendering hardware (DACs). Jitter, arguably, doesn't even change the audio data. The samples are the same. They're just rendered differently.

Maybe (MAYBE) USB cables belong in that category. But, if a cable is responsible for changing sound, it's defective.

 

Not so... I wish for no other kind! And I'm happy spending much of the day in front of it!

But, yes... usability, and whether the software does what you want. Very important indeed, and, as it is going to be mood affecting, we could say that that affects the sound!

 

If you're at the point where you're concerned about how your RAM influences your sound quality then you should probably just go vinyl.

 

Or see a doctor.

OK, so this audiophool thing maybe relatively harmless, except to the pocket, but to what extent do we go on calling delusion and disconnect from reality harmless?

 

It becomes harmful when others are affected by it. (Poor recommendations based on crazy beliefs and opinions and money being spent by the innocent, etc)

At least that's where I would draw the line.

 

That makes sense. Sadly, people flock in their thousands to take on board this stuff, and spend the money, and then join the bandwagon. Audiophilia hysteria is very contagious.

I'm far from being a hydrogenaudio hardliner, and I don't think I have ever insisted on blind testing a prospective purchase, but the fact that one will never ever ever see any blind-test results of this kind of product/idea speaks volumes. The only "evidence" is so loose as to hardly deserve the description subjective: it is wildy impressionistic to the point of dreaminess, and often accompanied by evidence that the speaker/writer is not very mentally astute anyway.

 

Let me just point something out to the agnostic can't-know-anything keep-an-open-mind crowd. At some level of absurdity it becomes pointless to equivocate; seriously, you won't get "NwAvGuy" painted on your house in blood or anything like that. I get that we are here because we enjoy audio gear as an end itself, but worrying about things like how an audio player or RAM sounds is actually neurotic.

 

Then there must be plenty of neurotic people in this SBAF thread as they mention they do select audio players based on how they sound:

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/computer-audio-players.134/

 

There are plenty of neurotic people in the audio/hifi world. By and large, they are probably the ones keeping major segments of it, if not the whole industry going. Those who have no neuroses at all have bought something decent and are enjoying it, and will go on doing so until it breaks; they won't be on audio forums talking about it. The rest of us... well, I call myself a recovering audiophile, but hey, I'm still visiting audio forums!

We all draw the line somewhere. We all know that today's madness becoming tomorrow's truth is not impossible: there are lots and lots of words that I am very willing to eat when the day comes. if it comes. Just as a for instance, I'd say that proving that there can be difference between different sample-rates of the same material is a diet I might have to adopt one day: I do believe that people have successfully blind-tested --- but whether that is because they happen to have a speciality in hearing digital artifacts, or whether they were actually able to say it sounds better is another thing.

Internal components of computers such as hard drives, sata cables, ram, etc... the odds are like being struck by an asteroid odds. Department of fairy smoke, magic crystals and unicorn dust. So sure, I'll eat my words, if the day comes. But I'm not expecting it in this lifetime. Or the next... Or the one after that...

If you believe in reincarnation, that is. Which, on the whole I do. Anyway, it is a damn site more likely to be true than ram affecting the sound.

 

Absolutely. And maybe there really is a difference there that they can hear. But as I see it, that has more to do with being very particular about getting a certain sound, vs. getting the best possible sound.

 

Non ECC RAM could affect sound in so far as an unresolved bit error could change data. Beyond that, you're not going to get better than perfect samples with better RAM.

That being said, as soon as I get a label maker, I'll be selling audiophile grade video cards on eBay.

 

As far as RAM goes, I don't think its terribly practical to worry about that.

 

Yep. For general purposes, we have to assume that the hardware is working normally. Software too. There's plenty that can go wrong with a computer, and some of it is very audible. I suppose the same goes for any machine.

On the whole, though, and somewhat amazingly given their complexity, they are pretty reliable things.

 

Take it for what's its worth, here's some technical explanation by commercial developers of audio players on why there maybe differences in sound between the players:

http://www.audiostream.com/content/...r-sound-different-another#uDMmsUwZf00CSOuz.97

 

On dithering, some dacs like audio-gd master 11/7/Dac19 have DSP dithering, if you use JR MC defaults, won't double dithering be detrimental to sound quality?

 

Not really that technical, unfortunately. They probably can't risk revealing their proprietary implementations, which is understandable.

JPlay declaring DirectSound to be bit-perfect ("all of which do not modify bits") kind of throws some doubt their credibility on this subject.