What is lossless?
What is bit perfect?
Are they the same?
Haha, not quite, but I like the sentiment.
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Yes, listen to more music. Recently found The Tragically Hip here:
https://www.prostudiomasters.com/search?cs=1&q=The+Tragically+Hip
If you talk about a lossless encoder like flac, it IS Bit perfect. It will be re converted to the original bitstream. Thus the name lossless encoder.
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OP - think of music in this novel mind-numbing way - if a sculpture doesnât fit in the door, you have two options:
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chop off the arms and legs and then it fits - then the sculpture is now MP3 - your brain will virtually fill in the legs and the arms and reconstruct that this is a sculpture of a human.
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You can bend the legs and arms and contort the sculpture until it fits, this is 48/16 (from 44.1/16) in that the sculpture still contains all the original info, but reshaped to fit the door. So nothing lost.
So, in the second case - the sculpture is lossless, but no longer bitperfect because one arm is now facing backwards and on leg is wrapped around the torso like a sausage - but everything is still there.
Plus, most music file formats have things like sum check and CRS to fix minor errors in the bit stream to restore it to being bit-perfect. The problem lies when errors exceed a certain level.
I think many answers here imagined this is a controversial discussion and whatnot.
The question is just unclear. The music IS âtrulyâ lossless if the stream/file is encoded in a lossless format, given that no other degradations of the source are done (like i donât know, downsampling).
And thatâs it, the definition (from information teory) is pretty clear. You have a source and a destination, and if the information from the source can be re-constructed with 100% accuracy from the destination, we are talking about a lossless transformation here.
So what about the âbit pefectâ thinggie? You mean bit perfect playback? Lossy/lossless as a term simply does not apply to a playback system. So bit perfection is just a separate concern
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This makes so much more difference than any tiny variation in playback equipment. people talk about noticing differences with a different router or upgraded ethernet cable but ignore the much bigger differences to sound reception caused by a different earwax configuration than yesterday
The third - audiophile - option: bigger door.
New carpet.
Increase floor strength
New paint on the walls
And then a bigger house.
The bigger house needs a dedicated 26âL x 16âW x 10âH music room!
Brother please.
Maybe Iâm giving OP too much credit here? But personally, I do think I can hear a difference between the same 16/44.1 flac file if played back bit-perfect (WASAPI/ALSA/USB-APP, etc) vs (poorly/hastily) resampled to 16/48 by my nvidia shield⌠my thinking is that his point might be the same? DunnoâŚ
Lossless mean ?
TODAY digital music LOSSLESS format exist in terms of quantity not quality.
Lossless is a simplification terms , is better than lossy because donât use compression and excessive manipulation , remove or add artifact , sampling (quantity)
End of games? No , because audio is a wide ecosystem.
Bit perfect ?.. bit also represent a small quantity of information , truly not perfect information
End of games ? No , because audio is a ⌠blabla
I suppose - since lossy sound is jagged - when the waves created by lossy music collide with your stereocillia it must be quite a violent affair. That canât be healthy. When analog music does on the other hand - your stereocilia dances like trees in the wind. While this is imperceptible - it still at a molecular level - your body is feeling it. So, if you love your ears - stop feeding them MP3.
I would say no. Bit perfect is ensuring that the file thatâs streaming from said service is delivered to the DAC intact without the bits that make the audio stream being altered. It will ensure that a 44.1/16 encoded file is sent to the DAC as 44.1/16 will be the same length and contain the same amount of digital samples as the original. Whether you hear a difference is up for debate but itâs not the same data as the source however you look at it.of not bit perfect.
Lossless file at 44.1/16 plays via Amazon Musicâs lossless tier on an Android phone it is no longer truly lossless as the bits are altered via the app/ operating system to play at 48/24. You are resampling the original source itâs not a bit perfect transfer from Amazon to the DAC. Same goes for Apple Music via a Mac. Itâs lossless source resampled to what the system audio is set at. If itâs higher than 44.1 then all music that is 44.1 is resampled to the rate the OS mixer is set to. It works the other way to so if you source is higher than what the system handles itâs resampled down and your loosing information and is no longer lossless.
There is no such thing as âlossless musicâ unless youâre listening to instruments playing live.
There are lossless digital encoding formats. Those take the PCM sampled audio and write the bits to files. As long as those PCM bits donât change the PCM representation of the analog is said to be âlosslessâ.
The idea of âlosslessâ for most digital playback chains is lossless to the DAC. This means the bits are the same reading the file to handing to the DAC.
So, to answer youâre question in the traditional sense, ânoâ. Altering the bits of the PCM, through up/down sampling, sending it through an OS mixer, using room correction, etc. is not normally considered âlosslessâ at the DAC since youâve altered the PCM from what was originally captured.
However, I can also answer your question as âyesâ. If you donât care what was in the file and your intention was to up/down sample, do room correction, etc. and the PCM after those âcorrectionsâ arrive at the DAC with the same bits as your correction.
So⌠donât think about it too much. Listen to what sounds good. Youâll listen to more music which is the point anyway.