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RE: Delusion is cheap

If you encode a WAV file with lossless compression, then decode it, the result is the exact same as the file you started with. If not, then by definition it's not lossless compression.

There are two playback stages:
- Get the bits to the DAC
- Convert to analog, get analog to your ears.

By definition the bits-to-the-DAC are identical.

So if anything affects the analog result or the experience of it, then something's wrong. There might be something in the coupling of the decode process with the DAC's clock, for example, that would induce signal-related jitter. But if that's the case then you should separate the decode process from the DAC clock by the greatest possible amount. But that coupling, in any halfway-sensibly engineered system, should be so small as to be completely undetectable - and certainly minuscule in comparison with other parts of the system where you're in much more control, such as for example the position of loudspeakers in your room. If it's detectable then there's something wrong with your system and you should probably try find a system which doesn't suffer from that problem. After all, if you think A sounds different from B when A and B are mathematically identical, then what chance do you have of telling whether A or B is really *better*?

So I feel that agonizing over one lossless compression format versus another is a fool's errand.

I'm not saying you shouldn't believe that WAV sounds better than FLAC, or FLAC than AIFF, or whatever, on your system. Feel free. But is it an interesting question? Relative to anything of any importance at all, is it worth an ounce of effort? Especially if the result is partially to confuse those who don't understand the starting point -- that lossless compression systems, by definition, don't make any change in the digital audio signal itself -- then, I think, no.

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