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The Digital Conundrum.....

Posted by Todd Krieger (A) on December 31, 2006 at 12:15:35

In Reply to: Actually... posted by AAG on December 31, 2006 at 06:00:19:

Although the symptom is "unnacceptable sound" in people's digital playback, and it seems like George's latest product might be the magic bullet, the nature of the alleged problem and the solution seem too vague. A black hole. More like a Band-Aid than a real solution.

The problem is, plain and simple, that vast majority of digital playback products just plain stink. (The recordings too, but the feedback for optimizing recording quality is often the playback.)

And the designers of digital audio products mostly don't have a clue, so instead of technology advancing, it's becoming more and more convoluted. (I also think this why digital playback performance does not correlate much to price- What designers think is better to warrant added expense may not in actuality be better.)

This is why most of my personal playback products are of 1990s vintage, where I think the level of digital playback hit its peak. There is good sounding digital out there, but mostly from that time period.

I think what George is doing is well-intentioned (in spite of this fetish with absolute polarity), and maybe even valuable, in regard to the public awareness that there is a fundamental problem with digital audio playback, which we still don't truly understand.

I'd be happy to review George's new product, but I don't have an urge to try it where I'd be willing to send money to do so. Because from a technical perspective, it's just another application based on mere faith and an impression of improved sonics. And because a ringing first-impression does not necessarily equate to real improvement (an audiophile habit that hits most of us), and the lack of fundamental understanding of the science associated with the new application, the new technology could in reality introduce a new problem instead of a real solution. (Its worst form is where it impacts the products themselves, resulting in big setbacks to the advancement of audio. dCS' introduction of asynchronous sample-rate conversion, with the assistance of an audio press salivating over the notion of "breakthrough" technology, has done exactly that.)

And worst of all, whenver such products are introduced, the perception of a possible solution just around the corner only perpetuates the real problem. Maybe in time, after we realize after all these "breakthroughs" never seem to solve the problems of digital audio playback, we'll finally realize the problem is at its core. Affecting just about every product that has ever been marketed, to varying degrees. The digital audio chips themselves. And until we get a true grasp of the problem (we're getting there, in spite of the digressions), we will not be able to provide proper feedback to those responsible for the core design (the chip manufacturers), so they can apply tangible improvements to their products, which would equate to real improvements in our end products.

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