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Please Educate Me

If I can’t find the answer here, I won’t find it anywhere. 

Something I’ve wondered about for a long time: The whole world is digital. Some huge percentage of our lives consists of ones and zeros. 

And with the exception of hi-fi, I don’t know of a single instance in which all of this digitalia isn’t yes/no, black/white, it works or it doesn’t. No one says, “Man, Microsoft Word works great on this machine,” or “The reds in that copy of Grand Theft Auto are a tad bright.” The very nature of digital information precludes such questions. 

Not so when it comes to hi-fi. I’m extremely skeptical about much that goes on in high end audio but I’ve obviously heard the difference among digital sources. Just because something is on CD or 92/156 FLAC doesn’t mean that it’s going to sound the same on different players or streamers. 

Conceptually, logically, I don’t know why it doesn’t. I know about audiophile-type concerns like timing and flutter. But those don’t get to the underlying science of my question. 

I feel like I’m asking about ABCs but I was held back in kindergarten and the computerized world isn’t doing me any favors. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do. I’ll be using Photoshop and I’ve got it dialed in just right. 
paul6001
Post removed 
middlemass
885 posts
 
Wish I was buzzed. Those were the days...
elliottbnewcombjr
5,176 posts
 
paul

I agree, unnecessarily nasty.

welcome aboard.
dill
2,438 posts
 
" But those don’t get to the underlying science of my question."
- So, what is the question?
paul6001 OP
98 posts
 
The question essentially is this: Why is digital audio information treated differently than digital information in any other form. Microsoft Word is a bunch of ones and zeros just like the ones on my new Vampire Weekend CD. But VW sound different when played on a NAD CD player than they do when played on a Parasound CD player. Why? Aren’t both players reading the same ones and zeros? 

We don’t expect Microsoft Word to perform differently on a Dell computer than it does on a H-P. What’s the difference between those ones and zeros and the audio ones? Somebody hinted that it’s the manner in which they the information is converted from digital to analog. That could be the answer although I wish someone would expound on it. And doesn’t Microsoft make a similar conversion when it converts digital information to something akin to analog in the form of letters that we can read?


You know, my PhD is in political science, not electrical engineering. But I know enough to be confident that this is a legitimate question, perhaps even a deep one. Some people seem to be willfully misreading it.


A few months back, I asked whether I would do any damage if I left my amp on all the time. I got several helpful answers. Maybe my question is a bit too esoteric for this crowd. I’ll hew closer to equipment related questions going forward.
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