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0xC0DEC0DE07E8

@dan 😭 I miss when the worst thing I knew audiophiles believed was vinyl >> PCM 44kHz > mp3 because there was at least some sort of theoretical argument for loss of precision that some small subset of super-heaters (à la super-tasters of broccoli) that could hear the difference.

5 comments
Григорий Клюшников

0xC0DEC0DE07E6, I once downloaded a discography torrent that had some albums as vinyl rips. They were something like 96 khz flacs. Just... Why? Do these people really not understand how sampling rates and frequencies work?

0xC0DEC0DE07E8

@grishka @dan listen here, sonny. The average person may only hear sounds between 20 Hz and 20 kHz, but an audiophile can hear the music of the spheres! Every frequency in god’s universe is open to them!

George Steel

@grishka @c0dec0dec0de @dan I blame this on underclocked DACs in cheap equipment (96k DACs are cheaper to make than 44.1k on modern processes), as they can produce excess noise when driven outside of their design parameters. On some of these devices, a 44.1k PCM track can sound better when resampled to 96k (no longer underclooking the DAC). Better equitpment performs resampling on the fly instead of underclocking.

The real test of hearing is whether that original 96k rip sounds different when converted to 44.1k and then converted back.

@grishka @c0dec0dec0de @dan I blame this on underclocked DACs in cheap equipment (96k DACs are cheaper to make than 44.1k on modern processes), as they can produce excess noise when driven outside of their design parameters. On some of these devices, a 44.1k PCM track can sound better when resampled to 96k (no longer underclooking the DAC). Better equitpment performs resampling on the fly instead of underclocking.

0xC0DEC0DE07E8

@gtsteel @grishka @dan that an ongoing problem or is that like someone being afraid to hotplug USB because historical serial peripherals were not universally safe to hotplug (like might fry a board unsafe)?

George Steel

@c0dec0dec0de @grishka @dan It's an ongoing problem in cheap gear, as manufacturers will always find ways to cut corners. This is also the reason why the opus tests were done as opus vs resampled to 48k (opus's output rate) instead of opus vs 44.1k original.

It's not such a problem in higher-end gear though, as good manufacturers have fngured out the combination of resampling in a DSP and a 96k (or more) DAC works quite well and is still quite a bit cheaper than a native 44.1k DAC (which requires a more precice and complex analog filter). Some of them even digitally convert to DSD and directly drive a switching amp (which makes the analog side even simpler).

@c0dec0dec0de @grishka @dan It's an ongoing problem in cheap gear, as manufacturers will always find ways to cut corners. This is also the reason why the opus tests were done as opus vs resampled to 48k (opus's output rate) instead of opus vs 44.1k original.

It's not such a problem in higher-end gear though, as good manufacturers have fngured out the combination of resampling in a DSP and a 96k (or more) DAC works quite well and is still quite a bit cheaper than a native 44.1k DAC (which requires...

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