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In Reply to: Re: Q:Apple lossless vs AIFF posted by Nieustevea@msn.com on March 17, 2007 at 20:10:50:
I agree with you and Todd, but do say that Lossless is lossless. From a data stanpoint, that is clear.But, I think that the more things a pc has to do (like un compress files) CAN affect things like pc ripples, and emi, etc, and THAT can affect the sound. Since lossless requires more processing, maybe that is what we are hearing.
So everyone is right, losless is lossless, but it does sound different because of the extra hoops the pc has to go through.
There are some that have experienced diminished sound quality when antivirus is active, so maybe it is not quite as simple as "losless is lossless"?
Follow Ups:
Interesting that you mention this. I noticed that when I am working on a paper with MS Word and I have iTunes playing into my stereo the sound quality is noticeably improved, so much so that I just want to listen and cannot concentrate on my work.At the same time, at night time when I am trying to sleep, particularly after the computer's clock reads 2 AM and I play music, I am likely to fall asleep quickly, no matter how good the music is due to the fatiguing sound produced by the clock interfering with the sound.
Another strange occurence, whenever I check my bank accounts balance with Safari at www.wamu.com and it is above a certain amount, say $1000 my system sounds really lacking and I feel the need to upgrade due to it's lack of a certain je ne sais quoi. On the other hand, when I am coming close to overdrafting, I notice that songs such as Pink Floyd's "Money" sound particularly articulate and just resonate well with the room acoustics.
Did those observing the antivirus problem happen to be listening to "Ghost in the Machine" by The Police? If so, the conflict between antivirus software trying to get the ghost out from the machine might be causing these sound quality issues.
Just my two cents on the issue, I am starting to see what people mean when they say there is something more to it than meets the ear.
1st, it is pretty clear why you are not registered.2nd, there are several posts about virus scanners affecting sound...do a search at the pc audio forum. One of the posters has a much better digital system than most, but since you are not registered and don't list any kind of components, I can't tell if you have similiar components or midfi crap. My hunch is the latter. Anyhow, his system is super revealing, and if he says zone alarm affects it, I have to take his word for it.
3rd, for some people like myself who have fanless pcs, resources are tight. And if you are using digital crossovers and upsampling in real time, anything that takes up resources can and does hurt the sound...just from a resource standpoint.
4th the faster a processor works the more rfi it puts out. RFI can be audible, so anything that diminishes this like not having to uncompress a file could improve the sound.
I thought there was a bit of humor hidden somewhere in my post, but hopefully now that I am registered I won't be able to understand humor anymore.
That is the thing that sucks about the internet, humor is often lost.ANyhow, one day I'll get the system running in the new digs, and then maybe put on some zone alarm, or abx flac and uncompressed, etc.
My music computer just doesn't have anything extra on it (no web connection, no antivirus, etc.) so while I can see that there could be sound differences, I can't say that I have experienced them because I have designed the system to minimize these issues (real or imagined).
BUt, Davis is fairly close, so if I do find that such things affect the sound I can let you know, and you can hear for yourself.
FOr a second, I was all ready to install WORD if it made things sound better :)
Haha, sorry to get your hopes up!Maybe it would be possible to analyze the differences by making recordings directly from the source and comparing the waveforms with and without antivirus software. Even that might be somewhat difficult, though, perhaps too many variables.
Yeah, I thought about doing just that, but then I thought of all the flac :) I would get because of the variables you are discussing.BUt I suppose that if I left the room and turned on and off the antivirus, that maybe it would be enough if I took many many recordings and just compared the parts where the antivirus was on and off.
If I could make say 5-10 recordings with no differences just to show that the recordings were faithful, then maybe this would work before trying the antivirus.
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