Back to the Basics of Sound

[BMXTRIX]

I think my original question may have been taken a little out of context. What I want is simply the perfect digital representation of the analog sound wave that exists on vinyl. After all, would this not give the perfect sound without the failings of vinyl (i.e. needle noise, dirty vinyl, etc.)?

Well, this makes sense, and is part of why there are HD audio formats. Such as the HD audio tracks listed above, that is the direction you should consider going. It will give you a great deal of added detail without the severe compromises of analog. Keep in mind, digital ALWAYS has stepping in it when you zoom in enough. Whether you can hear that stepping or not is an entirely different question.

What you may be hearing is differences in the baseline quality of certain recordings, which is personal preference, not necessarily 'defect'.

On FLAC, I choose FLAC because it is loseless and is a very good format to work with. I don't make CDs from them, but (if I did) most CD burning software takes the FLAC and recreates the CD audio file perfectly.

As stated before - FLAC is generally a copy of a CD. Unless you know for fact that it came from a higher resolution source, it is probably CD quality, which is not likely as detailed as HD audio is. CD FLAC, not HD FLAC.

I listen to FLACs on my computer which uses an HD sound chipset outputting 24-bit 192 kHz.

You need to add the words: "Is capable of" before your last line. Your soundcard is capable of outputting up to 24-bit 192 kHz audio. If you don't start with that level of audio, then your audio card can only try to fill in the blanks - which it may or may not do very well, which could affect audio quality, or it could pass the audio through native, which will be whatever is on your source.

While you may know all of this already, many people think because it says '192/24' then that is what they are getting, but this is far from the case.

I use a 15 year old set of Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers. They sound GREAT!

I'm not sure what your version of great is, but a make/model would be helpful to remove your personal bias from this statement. I have speakers that I think sound good. They are powered by a good A/V receiver with decent sized drivers and I use a 18" subwoofer to bring in the low end fully at decent volume. Yet, there is room for improvement, and I wouldn't call my setup 'great'. So, make a model number, so it can be viewed with some honest opinion please.

 

[NORVIN]

GranteedEV & BMXTRIX

Interesting and informative posts. I just wish the decision would be made if it is to be Blu-Ray, DVD-A, or SACD.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I listen to FLACs on my computer which uses an HD sound chipset outputting 24-bit 192 kHz.

You need to add the words: "Is capable of" before your last line. Your soundcard is capable of outputting up to 24-bit 192 kHz audio. If you don't start with that level of audio, then your audio card can only try to fill in the blanks - which it may or may not do very well, which could affect audio quality, or it could pass the audio through native, which will be whatever is on your source.

While you may know all of this already, many people think because it says '192/24' then that is what they are getting, but this is far from the case.

I'd like to expand this subject a bit:
that this means you computer codec [hardware], more specifically DAC portion is capable of decoding 192/24 , but codec specs alone are meaningless if taken out of actual motherboard implementation.

This is point where most mobo manufactures start cutting cost on codec output stage and produce very often sub-par product, by failing to use quality components and properly isolate audio tract from mobo noises often results in almost unusable product if you connect good speakers to it.
As result SNR and THD of onboard sound cards are often average at best, which negates the very high specs codec is Capable of....

Whats the point in getting HD Flac tracks if all sound comes out with hiss and hard drive and mouse movements noises ?