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In Reply to: RE: Damping CD Laser-Reader /Track more rewarding than CD treatments posted by Dryginger2 on July 23, 2020 at 20:00:46
There is much debate as to whether bits-is-bits is really true when recovering CD data in real time (generally they are, but there could be second and third order things going on).
But, if you are doing this in preparation for ripping then you have wasted your effort - ripped bits-truly-are-bits and tweaks will not change them to different bits. Use a ripper with Accurate rip and you know the data is 100% correct.13DoW
Edits: 07/23/20 07/23/20Follow Ups:
Your Grace,
Yes, I did investigate digital accuracy thoroughly.
Audiophile reports are limited in value by differences in hearing, equipment, and room conditions but, according friends and our local high-end audio dealer, I have unusually sensitive hearing which could not discern any audible difference in musical tone, note definition, detail, pace, rhythm, or timing between 10 CD rips using 'Apple Music' with Error Correction and those from the specialist application 'dBpoweramp'. The only very noticeable differences came in the large extra investment of time required when using 'dBpoweramp' for the re-checking of many individual tracks up to 17 times and the time-consuming job of transferring customized metadata. (I depart from downloaded styles.)
Dropped the noise floor and accessed more detail by CD pre-treatment with Walker Audio's $199.00 'Talisman CD/DVD Demagnetizer. And cleaned each CD with $99 Liquid Resolution. The laser's ability to read a 'one-hour plus music CD' at 6 megabytes-per-second in 120 seconds is dependent on a clean surface.
The general principle I found was that the faster the rip, the better the sound quality. The exception to the rule was the addition of MuMetal to the top of the ripper which slightly increased the speed but made the ripped music fatiguing to the ear. However a single layer of MuMetal sandwiched between cork under the computer's external music drive further opens up the music without that fatiguing effect.
Relocated the ripper's power circuit board to an external aluminum housing and replaced the 12 volt/3amp AC adapter with a linear power supply. Allocated separate AC circuits for ripper's LPS and laptop using a Shunyata Venom Digital cable to completely isolate the computer.
Substituted brass for magnetic screws throughout the ripper and LPS (particularly important near rotator-engine, laser-reader/track or carrying LPS current. Used PTFE thread wherever metal touched metal in either casing. Used an iPurifier2 at the start of the USB cable and iDefender before the laptop connection.
.
Thank you for the correct appelation! but (spoiler alert) I am not a real Duke.
You should be able to compare rips made using different tweaks to assess if the data is the same - this is independent of listening to them. If they are different then there is a real effect going on that you can isolate. And by comparing to the Accurate rip database you know which one is correct.
If your variously tweaked rips prove to all have the same data then something is going on when you play them back. I don't know how metadata affects the music bitstream during playback I would think it is benignly stripped off along with all the sub-codes and header stuff but who knows if the files were ripped identically but you modified them it might lead to a difference.
13DoW
Da Duke,
When locomotives haul hundreds of freight wagons, the numbers of cars and their total cargo weight are verified before departure. The momentum of each cargo train will likely change on approaching and leaving corners/ inclines/ declines, line switches and be impacted by other speed changes caused by weather, signals, and even crew health.
But why obsess over the digital content of the musical freight trains that has already been verified after departure simply because timing variations due to component differences and other track factors come into play? If you were to suggest to railroads that differences in daily mileage performance of their freight trains could be accounted for by verified wagons becoming detached in varying numbers during each trip, they would find the suggestion unworthy of serious response.
I don't think this really advances anything but let me roll with your analogy (pun intended). In the case of ripping we are talking about making an inventory of freight on the platform of Station A. It is then loaded on to a train and it journeys to Station B and in the process it experiences curves, grades, weather, happy children waving from an embankment etc. At station B the freight is unloaded on to the platform there. Is the inventory the same as it was on the platform of Station A? If the inventory is different then we must investigate if a crate was lost or broken on the journey because there must be a reason. If the inventory is unchanged then it didn't matter how burly the stokers were or whether they burned anthracite or nutty slack or whether the tracks had been finely polished or if the crusts were cut from the sandwiches in the buffet car.
If you are concerned with the same digital train stretching over varying amounts of digital track, traveling at a different speeds, or being more/ less accessible then you should indeed measure the track, inclines, declines, switches, and power of all magnetic and electrical forces involved with very precise equipment before counting and recounting the wagons.
Not being an accountant or scientist, I find improving music sound quality conditions to be sufficient reward. But don't let me distract a duke from his preoccupation with finding a digital wagon accounting fraud on the musical railroad...
I think the train analogy has reached the end of the rails. If you can hear differences between rips that are the same digital data e.g have good confidence in Accurate rip then that means your train leaves from Kings Cross, Platform 9 3/4.
Regards
13doW
Agreed and thank you.
Even now am haunted by innumerable journeys made between St. Pancras platforms 1 & 2/ Derby B.R. mainline station back in 1975-1982 to visit Bemrose Information Services from whom I would return carrying heavy 20" high stacks of computer digital-file printouts to check/ amend prior to publishing corporate client lists of the 6,000 leading advisory firms in the 9 major City professions. My obsession with digital accuracy was total since one wrong numerical code would have led to a corporate adviser entry-error that could have caused loss of credibility and confidence among contributing CFOs and the supporting financial press/ City advertising establishment. As you might imagine, I developed three separate layered systems for fail-safe digital-entry, data-verification. Publishing fact can be highly prestigious until including any printed error/s after which factual authority can swiftly slip away.
You might be surprised, 13DoW. Back in the late 1990s, when CD burners tended to be external, I tried several different Hospital Grade power cords on an external CD burner with an IEC inlet, and each Red Book CD burned with the same program material sounded distinctly different, for better or worse.
Duster,
I concur. The relationship between the same IDENTICAL zeroes/ones in the bits/bytes from the recorded music is inevitably degraded by the processing journey from the digital source through capture to storage and play.
Exposure to component electrical wiring and jitter processing issues disrupt their precise timing relationship and other forms of corruption degrade their reproduction for musical definition, detail, and tone. That said, after subtly damping the laser-reader and track, listening to RCA Victor's 1992 Red Seal DDD recording of Janos Starker playing Bach's Suites for Solo Cello transports me back 38 years right to the center of the live music as though present at The American Academy of Arts and Letters, NYC, during the June performances recorded by Tom Lazarus.
Dry Ginger
I am a little surprised as you this is something with a quantifiable aspect rather than being purely experiential. Do you still have those discs or the equipment to replicate the effect? A good experiment would be to burn discs with different burner power cords then rip those discs back and compare them to the original data. If the data is different then you are on to something. If the data is not changed then, IMHO, the burden of proof falls on you to prove you're not deluded.
Regards,
13DoW
Sound Forge allows you to look at the file sample by sample.
If there is a difference you will see it. Period.
I get that audio is subjective but this is objective. Period.
Did I say "period" enough?
Tre'
Have Fun and Enjoy the Music
"Still Working the Problem"
you do understand that any adopted placebo effect is priceless correct?
regards,
Why yes, yes I do.
Expectation bias is real and needs to be fought tooth and nail if truth is the goal.
Beyond that, we humans are so easily fooled when it comes to your senses.
Tre'
Have Fun and Enjoy the Music
"Still Working the Problem"
just look at the effect of decimals in advertising
would you rather pay $19.99 or $20.00?
just kidding, that's done for the repetitive 'n' sound
primitive repetition ...
which catches the ear by appealing to early childhood language development
regards,
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