Ripping CD's - Bypassing Computer CD Player

If people think they hear differences from all these things, who as I to say?

Nothing. There will never be a consensus in anything.

" When rip wav->flac->wav, depending on the software, possible loss of precision?"

That is not likely. The data is integer not floating point format.

What does not floating point have to do with potential errors? It's a software program. Data is probably processed in bytes.

People do binary compares, find the files identical, and report they sound different. At one point I spent a lot of time doing binary compares and looking a file formats.

If binary compare returns TRUE, STOP!!! Like I said, people likes to exaggerate and sometimes have no clue in not comparing apples to apples but apples to oranges as we've seen in this forum.

Some people have ripped to flac and then decided to convert to wav because they think it sounds better. Somebody then pipes in and says they should re-rip everything, since the converted wav file will not sound the same as the ripped wav file, even though they are bit for bit identical.

Where's the original wav? When you rip into another format, it doesn't overwrite the orig but just create a new copy in new format. No?

Let's not get too deep into this. There are lots of discussions on AA and other places about this and nothing ever gets resolved.

Don't worry I won't. Have NO plans jumping in AA.

In the Absolute Sound article I mentioned, the authors said the sound go worse the more times files were converted, even if they ended up bit identical. I will say, they did get a lot of push back on that topic. However, others do report similar experiences. But, hey, if people believe they hear differences, that is up to them.

Perhaps authors are members of mentioned AA?

Loss of precision is often a a result of floating point calculations. That is why I mentioned it. The calculations used to compress and decompress files is entirely an integer process. The program may make mistakes, but given you can convert to wav to flac and back to wav and have a bit identical file says that the conversions are being done properly. There is no evidence of any program error or loss of precision. The files before and after conversions are the same based on binary compares, not just checksums.

As to bytes versus integer, in a typical 16/44 file each datapoint is an 16 bit number, which cannot be represented by a byte. Hence, my reference to integers rather than bytes. But the real point is that the calculations do not result in any loss of precision.

The wav to flac to wav tests are just that - tests. They try to see if the conversions influence the sound. People have done this because of the reasons I stated. Some people believe the original and final wav files do sound different, even though the original and final wav file are bit for bit identical. You can say STOP, but people report that they can sound different. I am just summarizing what some people report.

09-04-14: Kijanki

In the Absolute Sound article I mentioned, the authors said the sound go worse the more times files were converted, even if they ended up bit identical. I will say, they did get a lot of push back on that topic. However, others do report similar experiences. But, hey, if people believe they hear differences, that is up to them.

Perhaps authors are members of mentioned AA?

No doubt! If files are identical according to a binary compare, why waste time debating if they sound the same.

If you want to read more about the controversial Absolute Sound article where much of the above is discussed...

Absolute Sound Forum