[1] In general, it is interesting that everyone on this forum seems to know more about my personality and state of mind than I do with regard to all things audio. [2] Again, I come for the technical advice and get a free lesson in psychology.
1. Firstly, it’s not “
personality and state of mind”, it’s psychoacoustics 101. Secondly, yes, we are assuming you are a human being, are therefore subject to psychoacoustics and presumably you do experience the stereo illusion and music? And lastly, yes “it is interesting” that you would come to a science discussion forum and argue about psychoacoustics without apparently even knowing you’re arguing about psychoacoustics, let alone knowing/understanding about psychoacoustics!!
2. Exactly, you come “
for the technical advice” on a subject that is NOT technical, it’s psychoacoustical and then complain that you’re getting a free lesson in psychoacoustics instead of technical advice?!
This is interesting and informative but does not really explore at what point an overtaxed switching power supply could produce noise/errors that are non-fatal (I.E., resulting in complete loss of signal) but nevertheless audible.
Correct, it does not explore at what point a switching power supply could produce noise/errors that are non-fatal because it makes no difference. The whole point of inventing digital in the first place and the way it works in practice is that it makes no difference! Noise has no effect on digital data transfer unless it is great enough to cause errors, in which case those errors are corrected. The only potential concern is so many errors that the error correction is overwhelmed but then you get a fatal “
complete loss of signal”. So, what conditions exist under which noise/errors are non-fatal but are “
nevertheless audible”?
[1] What if the jitter produced in the Node under these conditions were greater than 500ns? [2] What if other noise is transferred to the DAC via the SPDIF connection that is audible? [3] What if the overtaxed switching supply in the Node server is feeding added noise over typical background into the mains and that is affecting other components?
Exactly, just another bunch of nonsense “what ifs”!
1. I provided you with reliable evidence that even cheap CD and DVD drives from ~30 years ago produced jitter on average at around 0.15ns. So if the Node, which is a current/modern device that costs ten times more, produces 500ns of jitter (over 3,000 times more jitter) then obviously it’s faulty!
2. Noise has no effect on digital audio unless it is great enough to cause errors!
3. Then it is very seriously defective, even to the point of it potentially being an electrical hazard!
Do you have any reliable evidence for any of the above “what ifs” though, for 500ns of jitter, for noise in the SPDIF signal magically being output by the DAC at audible levels or noise feeding back into the mains and affecting other components? What if when you power up your HDD it generates a couple of microscopic invisible pixies that head straight for your eardrums and start stretching it, wouldn’t that cause your HDD drive to sound flat? Is that a possibility, can you reference any scientific papers disproving it, do you have any “technical advice” about it?
But I do get a sense of unusually energetic defense of the Castle of “science” in this forum that comes off as both condescending and a little bit paranoid. If you’re right, you’re right, and you should be happy in that knowledge. If you’re not right, you might want to be more curious, at least when nobody else is looking.
It’s proven math and digital data transfer could hardly be more exhaustively researched or demonstrated in practice, so how would even the most energetic of defences not be warranted? “If we’re not right”, then digital data transfer would be so unreliable that the digital age would not exist and there would be no digital audio, internet or consumer digital devices of any type.
… the audio performance was clearly affected, both in terms of clarity, timing and leading edge attack and trailing edge decay in comparison with solid state drives.
If the “
audio performance was clearly affected” (to audible levels) in ANY terms, why can’t you provide ANY reliable evidence to support that assertion?
Is it possible to hold two potentially opposing concepts in your head at the same time - those being that the results of well designed ABX/DBT tests show no statistical difference between components A and B in group settings are real and valid, and that individuals can reliably hear differences in their own systems that allow them to tune their system to their room and liking, even when evaluating things like cables and digital front ends? Because I can, and if that makes me a “troll” in your eyes, then so be it.
How many times? We are not holding those two opposing concepts in our heads at the same time, only YOU are, the two opposing concepts we’re holding in our heads are:
1. At least a basic knowledge of: How digital audio works, how analogue signals work and what sound is. Of the actual objective measurements of DAC performance, of how those measurements relate to analogue signals and sound (or in fact do not relate!). Of the thresholds of human hearing, of psychoacoustics, perceptual errors and being affected by biases. And additionally, of well designed ABX/DBT tests that corroborate all that knowledge/facts.
2. Audiophiles’ claims that they can “reliably hear differences”, which is contrary to both the facts/knowledge and the controlled tests/studies and which in fact they cannot “reliably hear” under blind conditions. That they “energetically defend” with nothing except falsehoods and fallacies, typically ridiculous fallacies such not being subject to perceptual errors/illusions even though they routinely discuss soundstage (the stereo effect) which is a perceptual illusion.
These are the two opposing concepts we hold in our heads (or at least I do) but the second one is just marketing induced delusion, at least until there’s some reliable evidence to the contrary. But I’m not holding my breath, audiophiles have been promising such evidence for nigh on half a century and still not even a whiff of any, just ever more fallacies, falsehoods and nonsense “what ifs”!
G
Edit: At what point does just endlessly repeating fallacies and nonsense “what ifs”, even AFTER it’s been explained that they’re fallacies/nonsense, does it go from just understandable ignorance to wilful ignorance and then deliberate trolling?