I normally consider myself a somewhat smart guy, but in light of the bolded sentence, I feel like a complete idiot. Lol. You guys lost me at sine wave.
Being a "smart guy" doesn't mean that you (or anyone else) is born with the understanding of how audio works. It just means you have the capacity to understand, providing we have an appropriate starting point. So, you should definitely NOT "feel like a complete idiot", or, if you do, join the club! Everyone, including all the famous producers, engineers and scientists who invented audio recording technology and the art it contains, were at one time effectively "complete idiots"! All we therefore need to do is ascertain your appropriate starting point and as you're a smart guy, we should be able to quickly progress from there. Have you read this post #3040, specifically point #1? If so and you're still confused, no problem we'll just find an even earlier starting point.
Bare in mind that much of the last few pages have been aimed at someone professing to already have a high level of understanding of audio, high enough even to argue with those who do it for a living. It's a shame it got so heated and derailed, to the point that it's made you feel an idiot.
BTW, just in case there's any doubt, due to what's been posted previously, there's absolutely no sarcasm intended in this response.
G