MQA Deep Dive - I published tracks on Tidal to test MQA

[Audiophiliac]

You mean fan noise? I don’t know what OS and app you use, but if decompressing a FLAC file real time is loading a 12 core 4 GHz CPU in any meaningful way, something is really wrong with your setup…

Decompressing a FLAC will load your cpu for the duration it requires to decode it. The 12 core 4ghz cpu will load up completely for like 5ms. Future cpu's will load up with even more power, to do it in less time. An old 386 33mhz cpu will inject less noise into your output. My ears can detect noise in FLAC playback, to the point where I still buy albums for up to $30, to support the artists as well as get the wav copies legally, for reference playback.

 

[Mediahound]

Decompressing a FLAC will load your cpu for the duration it requires to decode it. The 12 core 4ghz cpu will load up completely for like 5ms. Future cpu's will load up with even more power, to do it in less time. An old 386 33mhz cpu will inject less noise into your output. My ears can detect noise in FLAC playback, to the point where I still buy albums for up to $30, to support the artists as well as get the wav copies legally, for reference playback.

There is very little CPU overhead in uncompressing a FLAC. You can measure/see this by running a CPU monitor app and watch it in real time.

 

[Audiophiliac]

No, it doesn't depend on your ears, it depends on facts.

If the output isn't measurably different in a null test how does it sound different ?

Expectation bias, you have a theory that it should sound better even if that theory is spurious so your mind tells you it does indeed sound better.

After purchasing wav files and playing them back from a ssd, streaming sucks, even while still through Audirvana.
It's not my problem if you can't hear FLAC noise, and congratulations if you can't either.

 

[Audiophiliac]

There is very little CPU overhead in uncompressing a FLAC. You can measure/see this by running a CPU monitor app and watch it in real time.

Yeah, it will be a 1ms task it hurries as fast as possible. My argument is that a cpu is super noisy, injects noise into the sound, and why people prefer streamer frontends, with a quieter power supply, and a simpler quieter cpu.

 

[Mediahound]

Yeah, it will be a 1ms task it hurries as fast as possible. My argument is that a cpu is super noisy, injects noise into the sound, and why people prefer streamer frontends, with a quieter power supply, and a simpler quieter cpu.

Standalone streamers are just dedicated computers. They have a CPU in them too. The difference is they may be more optimized for audio by not running anything else, having a slimmed down OS, better USB transceiver, etc.

 

[Audiophiliac]

Standalone streamers are just dedicated computers. They have a CPU in them too. The difference is they may be more optimized for audio by not running anything else, having a better USB transceiver, etc.

No streamers are streamlined computers. Your desktop or laptop is a dedicated computer. After that, yes, they're optimized for audio.

 

[BS5711]

After purchasing wav files and playing them back from a ssd, streaming sucks, even while still through Audirvana.
It's not my problem if you can't hear FLAC noise, and congratulations if you can't either.

I know an awful lot of people "perceive" certain things in audio more than they actually "hear" them but so long as you are happy it doesn't really matter what the truth is.

I would still be keen to see a null test of your poor noisy FLAC versus your lovely quiet WAV.

 

[Audiophiliac]

I know an awful lot of people "perceive" certain things in audio more than they actually "hear" them but so long as you are happy it doesn't really matter what the truth is.

I would still be keen to see a null test of your poor noisy FLAC versus your lovely quiet WAV.

Well, actually, once some people have argued that 128kbps mp3's are indistinguishable from the original wav file, shouldn't it also automatically be acceptable to say that the original uncompressed file sounds better? Without fear of reprisal?

 

[castleofargh]

If you were confident about the added CPU noise hypothesis, you wouldn't repeatedly push this mp3 straw man argument.
Surely, you expect most people here to know the difference between lossy and lossless compression.

 

[BS5711]

Well, actually, once some people have argued that 128kbps mp3's are indistinguishable from the original wav file, shouldn't it also automatically be acceptable to say that the original uncompressed file sounds better? Without fear of reprisal?

If you wanted to understand if your theory about CPU noise holds water wouldn't you do a null test or seek out somebody with the gear to do that for you ?

Listening to something to test a theory isn't really the most convincing position from which to back up an otherwise unsupported hypothesis that flies in the face of the very design of the file and compression technology.

I have thought I have heard plenty of improvements with certain gear until I dig deeper to try and prove myself right or wrong and pretty much every time all I prove is the power of mental stimuli to make you hear what you think you will hear or what you want to hear.

 

[gregorio]

My argument is that a cpu is super noisy, injects noise into the sound …

Unfortunately, that is the hole in your argument (or one of them at least): As there is no sound, only digital data, then obviously the CPU cannot “inject noise into the sound”. It could potentially inject noise into the data stream but then digital data is immune from noise, that’s why digital audio was invented in the first place.

G

 

[Mediahound]

Yeah, it's not the CPU injecting any noice, if anything, it would be the AC mains. Things like USB cleaners and DDC's can help with that.

I have the Chord MScaler which acts as a DDC of sorts (+more) and stream from my Mac and don't notice any audio quality difference versus streaming from a dedicated streamer.

 

[GoldenSound]

Unfortunately, that is the hole in your argument (or one of them at least): As there is no sound, only digital data, then obviously the CPU cannot “inject noise into the sound”. It could potentially inject noise into the data stream but then digital data is immune from noise, that’s why digital audio was invented in the first place.

G

Technically speaking, a machine under higher load CAN be noisier, which if the DAC is not fully isolated etc can be affected to some degree. Hence many higher end DACs have full galvanic isolation.

In practice though, FLAC decoding uses almost no resources and could basically be done on a paperclip. Whatever your laptop/desktop is doing just in terms of background tasks will be massively more demanding than decoding a FLAC file.

And if for some reason someone is still super concerned about it....just buy a raspberry pi

 

[Audiophiliac]

Well, it's the same people trying to tell me I am wrong to hear a difference, so goodbye head-fi losers. Have a good time with your gear that makes everything sound the same, I won't bother arguing any further. Tin ears. You probably think all songs are indistinguishable from your favorite, too, and you listen to rap because of it. Just play everything through your phone tweeter, and tell everyone you won't go along with anything beating that until they support their arguments with empirical hardware measured evidence, followed by A/B testing by a group of 100 people. Make sure you tell everyone that any gear upgrades actually make things worse for you, with that woman...

 

[XTF1]

Well, it's the same people trying to tell me I am wrong to hear a difference, so goodbye head-fi losers. Have a good time with your gear that makes everything sound the same, I won't bother arguing any further. Tin ears. You probably think all songs are indistinguishable from your favorite, too, and you listen to rap because of it. Just play everything through your phone tweeter, and tell everyone you won't go along with anything beating that until they support their arguments with empirical hardware measured evidence, followed by A/B testing by a group of 100 people. Make sure you tell everyone that any gear upgrades actually make things worse for you, with that woman...

Where does somebody said you were wrong? That may be how you “perceive” it, but your claims of hearing differences between the WAV and FLAC versions of the same audio file, and “noise” beeng injected (?) by the CPU when decompressing a FLAC file are so… wild… that providing a minimum of context, explanations, and evidences is a very reasonable ask.
You choose to not share anything supporting your claims… I’m cool with that… But why did you even comment on this thread to start with?