Why Do WAV And FLAC Files sound different?

Sorry, but that is unbelieveable. There is no NOISE in data processing on a computer.
If you uncompress music, you uncompress a part of data file to the memory and then send the uncompressed data to a device that will interpret the data as music. And this data has as much noise as an uncompressed spreadsheet has. And if the uncompression takes to long you will not have a problem with latency, your receiving device did not get the data fast enough and you hear a dropout.
Yes, it is so simple in a digital world.
All other believes come from old analog day and cannot be tranfered the digital processing. There is no magic in digial audio processing, it’s simply science, Otherwise our computers won’t work as reliable as they do every day.

1 Like

I agree about noise in the data. But the noise from a computer propogates through the earth connection. I heard it recently when (ill advisedly) using CAT 8 shielded Ethernet cables. Even through a microRendu. When I opened a window on the desktop or gave the CPU a task, I heard noise through the speakers with no music playing. Swapping back to CAT 6, no noise.

1 Like

Your reply misses the point. Few argue the data is changed.

The question is what happens as the digital data is being converted to audio? Are there influence processes in the digital>analog path that can result in the same digital information sounding different when it is converted to analog, even when played back on the same electronics? This is not the same type of process as unpacking a zip file. Far from it.

In spite of what you seem to have written, it isn’t incomprehensible to see logical reasons how this could happen.

Nope.You are actually the person with a fundamental misunderstanding. Computers and digital processing create lots of noise from the electronics. The noise can effect the result in the conversion to analog output. Look at the ham radio world - you can find lots of engineering papers talking about how noise on digital circuits and carried on digital cables affects the analog output at the end of the chain. Same principle applies to audio.

One minor example: conversion of digital audio files to analog includes timing data and issues - this is an area that doesn’t exist in file transfer of data and in packing or unpacking a zip file. The digital files in digital audio aren’t any different than any other file on a computer. But we don’t listen to digital files - we listen to digital information that is converted to analog.

All of the above has nothing to do with your point about unpacking a zip file and reliability of our computers. It’s a different issue.

1 Like
  • These guys say its the embedded album art that causes audible trouble. OMG
  • Noise is relevant when it renders the digital signal unusable - if this happens there are greater problems than audio quality
  • Of course noise may be relevant when it enters the analog stages. Does not happen with properly designed circuits. But then, there are lots of “audiophile” designs that do not follow best practices of circuit design.
  • A computer built from quality parts should be pretty much immune to the effects discussed here. People who spend megabucks for bridges they can put their megabuck cables on should be able to afford a decent computer.
  • HAMs are one of the the worst examples for technical expertise I can think of. Most of them still do not get the concept of Software Defined Radio (SDR) that is driving our mobile phones for decades now. HAMs as well as lot of audiophiles simply try to apply analog thinking to the digital domain, which just does not work.
    I am running a SDR on my desktop computer with no problems at all. High level noise (which is “visible” by the spectrum and waterfall displays generated by the software) comes from electric fences, solar power equiptment, powerline installations in other houses, faulty and/or ill designed switching power supplies, LED-Streetlights etc. My computers contribution to all this man made noise is a minor one. And we are talking very very low level rf signals here.

That just means you must use a properly designed D/A-converter. It’s hard to buy bad ones these days, unless you insist on designs that do not follow basic rules.

But then, as always: To each his own

3 Likes

Yes I agreed, in any digital processing it will create some noise due to high speed switching. However, digital processing is highly immuned to noise and it does not affect the data integrity as long the noise threshold is very low. The important thing is to keep the noise as low as possible and prevent it to propogate to the DAC. The source noise (PC) has to be as low as possible. I’ve not came across audiophile actually measure the level of noise from the PC. I believe due to the different setup up it is not possible to generalise this conclusions. Dedicated solutions like Auralic and Lumin music servers for instance take great care in isolating noise from the digital to the analog section.

The server is irrelevant the equation, you shouldn’t be streaming directly from it, but rather from an endpoint that’s not doing anything demanding like transcoding, DSP etc.

1 Like

I am waiting for somebody to claim that sound degrades when de-/transcoding at the server is done for several clients at a time. Because the server might mix up one bit or another, they might reason. Same goes for that network that has to deliver all those strange packets at the same time. But maybe some special cables might help there. In case of wlan transmission there might be a special air refresher that takes care all packets reach their highend destination unharmed.

Funny you should mention wifi. I have available a special audiophile pump spray canister of dihydrogen oxide that alters the permittivity and permeability of the air to electromagnetic fields between wifi Roon Control points and

1 Like

And
? Inquiring minds want to know! :slight_smile:

I recently had a hifi shop manager tell me that Meridian ‘Speakerlink’ cables alter the ‘timing’ of the signals passing through them so as to convert data into music in the last three feet of the signal’s journey from server to DAC.
I was speechless.

I did the very same thing and when I came across Roon I was amazed how Roon treated WAV files with all of its Meta Data.

Back in the day there was something about a uncompressed WAV vs a MP3.

BTW, very interesting topic and discussion. I really do not have anything of substance to add except from a personal perspective, I prefer WAV over anything else and because of Roon, it lets me access my WAVs through out my domain with all of the Meta included. I think of FLAC as an added bonus.

MD