Originally Posted by
tfarney
No fanboy elitist Mac shite intended. I thought i made it clear that it is a pretty simple matter to get bit-perfect data out of Windows as well. Core Audio makes it simpler in OSX, and its early implementation won Mac the lion's share of the pro business, but I didn't mean to overstate it. The right software, and throwing a few virtual switches in Windows will do the trick and even the score, even in the humblest Windows machines.
The "noise" I was referring to is the physical noise of fans and spinning hard drives, not the electronic noise in the internal computer environment. The latter problem is, while overstated these days, very easily addressed with the very common solution of getting the digital to analog processing outside of that environment - the external dac.
Error correction in DACs does not correct bit errors, which do not exist unless something is terribly wrong, but timing errors - jitter - most of which is generated by the very DACs that are attempting to correct it. Actual bit errors would not result in the subtle distortions attributed to jitter by those attempting to sell more and more expensive DACs. They would result in unmistakable errors that would not even warrant discussion in audiophile circles. It would result in the audio equivalent of me typing "voodoo" and you receiving "ovoodo," thus my poorly-chosen example. Sorry it pissed you off.
And yes, a hard drive is a spinning disc, but it doesn't spin to "play" the music. It simply sends data, in batches, to RAM, verifies a bit perfect match of the data in RAM back to the data on the hard drive, and then the data is sent from RAM to the DAC. The spinning disc is effectively isolated from the problem.
Last but not least, I don't claim that computer audio is "better." Given properly implemented error correction and isolation of the DAC from either disc, there should be absolutely no difference, with the same DAC, between a computer as source and an optical drive as source. The zeros and ones will be identical and the quality of the audio signal will be determined in their conversion and in the analog equipment that follows.
Computer vs optical disk is a simple choice. Do you like the convenience of having all of your music in a database, or do you prefer going through the disks, optical or vinyl, and laying your hands on the media? The voodoo is in believing either is superior to the other. And if there is anything I actually said, as opposed to something you perceived, which justifies all the anger and obscenity in your post, I offer my apology. If not, I'll accept yours.
Tim
