Exactly....
When I RIP a CD, my ripping software verifies the results by comparing a checksum of the actual numbers it read to one stored in a database. If the result matches the database, then my RIP is
identical to RIPS of the same CD performed by several other people. It's not "sort of the same" and it won't "maybe be better if I try it a few more times". Every single number is the same. If adding a mat doesn't change the numbers, then they will still be correct (and identical); in which case they cannot sound different when I play those two files. If it changes the numbers, and I get different numbers, and my original numbers were correct, then the new and different numbers must be
WRONG. And, if you compare those two files, and they are the same, then there is simply no possible reason for them to sound different - unless you believe in magic.
When you play a CD directly from a CD player into a DAC, the digital audio "signal" is made up of numbers and a clock. At this point both the clock and the numbers are important. If the mat were somehow capable of helping the player deliver those same numbers, but improved the quality of the clock - perhaps by reducing jitter, then it could
possibly produce an audible improvement in sound. (However, if you know how the circuitry inside a CD player works, then you would understand why this is also rather unlikely.) However, this is simply not true for digital audio that is ripped to a
FILE - because only the numbers are stored in the file. The clock, whether good, bad, or better, is discarded at this point, and a new one is created when the file is played.
Quote:
When you say "listening will leave no doubt whatsoever," you mean ABX testing? I bet not.
And yes. A disc could be played in "real time" over a digital connection to a computer, saved, and the digital signal could could be compared with and without the mat.
I have a proposal for you to present to your dealer... who is quite certain that there is an obvious difference...
You will RIP the same CD ten times, half with the mat and half without; name the file you get each time ( "01-testtrack.wav" "02-testtrack.wav" etc) and keep track of which is which in a list.
Now, give those ten files to your dealer - MINUS THE LIST, and ask him to tell you which five were done with the mat.
He can play them on whatever equipment he likes (since it's the files themselves we're comparing).
If the difference is real and obvious, he should have no trouble telling which files were done with the mat - ten times out of ten - right?
If he gets nine out of ten correct you pay him double.
If he gets less than nine out of ten right, then he gives you the mat, buys you dinner, and apologizes.