Sound quality

[DavidHB]

(29-12-2016 11:29)Melco Man Wrote:  Thanks. I kind of get it. Just not sure I totally understand about the 'space'. My files are stored as uncompressed FLAC and are now being transcoded to WAV 24. The 24 bit FLAC to WAV 24 must surely make no difference? The 16 bit FLAC to 24 bit WAV I can't get my head around as surely the 16 bit will remain as 16 bit???

Actually, as far as the facts of the case are concerned, you are (I believe) pretty much correct. In particular, the 16 bit data is still 16 bit, albeit padded out with zeroes to fill up the 24 bits. I cannot recall seeing any explanations as to how this could affect perceived sound quality. But, apparently, that is what it does, at least sometimes.

I can offer a couple of fairly random thoughts, which may or may not be relevant. Firstly I remember someone writing on the forum several years ago (and I cannot find the post) that Naim had said that playing WAV rather than FLAC helped lower the noise floor in their players. As human hearing is apparently sensitive to even tiny amounts of noise and much of the technology of high end hi-fi is directed at reducing noise to hitherto unimaginably low levels, this, if correctly reported, is a significant and interesting statement.

Secondly, in 2015, Linn published a white paper on The Evolution of the Pre-amplifier, which provides the technical background to their decision to stop making separate (analogue) pre-amplifiers. It is interesting in the present context because it describes in some detail the signal path in their top of the range Klimax DSM (a combined streamer and pre-amplifier with digital and analogue inputs). You will see that the signal path involves quite a bit of upsampling and downsampling along the way, so it could be said that the upsampling to WAV24 is only the first of several such processes that the data will encounter. I doubt that Linn is the only manufacturer to design systems like this; indeed, some form of upsampling is needed for any digital volume control to work properly without truncating the data. Does starting with an upsampled 24 bit file improve matters in some way? I really don't know, but the thought is intriguing.

David