The idea that the FLAC decoder produces wrong numbers is just not credible. People have repeatedly shown that the compression/decompression algorithms works. And, computers very, very seldom make computing mistakes. If each time you opened a spreadsheet it produced different results, people would not use them. If there is one thing that a computer can do it is do computations correctly. If people think that the computer is regularly doing the FLAC computations incorrectly and in a random manner, then I would love to see some actual proof of that. I just do not think it happens.
So, others issues for audio seem to be electrical noise and timing. Electrical noise, for example grounds, can potentially be an issue. That is why people are building galvanic isolation into higher end devices - to break the electrical connection between the PC and the DAC. Of course, electric noise is also present in network players, it just is not tied to the PC.
That leaves timing. Digital audio depends on precise timing of each sample. Before aysnc USB, the timing was problamatic and jitter was a real issue. That is why I keep coming back to aysnc USB. If it works are advertised, the jitter should be very low and independent of the source format. If someone can explain why the source format processing influences the final timing in a aysnc USB device, then I am all ears. I admit to not knowing the exact inner workings of the aysnc code (very few people do). But if it works as advertised, then FLAC decoding should not be an issue with its timing.
I agree that networked solutions can provide better isolation that direct connections. Remember, I am not talking about audio streams in general, but the difference between FLAC and WAV files. I am not willing to say that computers routinely make computational errors when compressing and decompressing FLAC files and therefore WAV files are better. If people think they hear a difference, that is up to them. But I have yet to hear a detailed explanation of why that happens that makes sense.
Time to get ready for Thanksgiving.
So, others issues for audio seem to be electrical noise and timing. Electrical noise, for example grounds, can potentially be an issue. That is why people are building galvanic isolation into higher end devices - to break the electrical connection between the PC and the DAC. Of course, electric noise is also present in network players, it just is not tied to the PC.
That leaves timing. Digital audio depends on precise timing of each sample. Before aysnc USB, the timing was problamatic and jitter was a real issue. That is why I keep coming back to aysnc USB. If it works are advertised, the jitter should be very low and independent of the source format. If someone can explain why the source format processing influences the final timing in a aysnc USB device, then I am all ears. I admit to not knowing the exact inner workings of the aysnc code (very few people do). But if it works as advertised, then FLAC decoding should not be an issue with its timing.
I agree that networked solutions can provide better isolation that direct connections. Remember, I am not talking about audio streams in general, but the difference between FLAC and WAV files. I am not willing to say that computers routinely make computational errors when compressing and decompressing FLAC files and therefore WAV files are better. If people think they hear a difference, that is up to them. But I have yet to hear a detailed explanation of why that happens that makes sense.
Time to get ready for Thanksgiving.