An introduction to computer audio
Welcome
Today life is easy. If you have a question, Google provides the answer.
In fact many answers, you only have to find out which is the right one.
When I was looking for a new CD player, the answer was when a man is looking for a new CD player, he is getting old. Might be wrong but you better be sure. No new CD player for me.
I started with computer based audio and entered the world of tagging, ripping, audio formats, media players, etc. A fascinating world but it take some time to find your way.
This website is about what I learned so far.
I try to talk facts but anybody familiar with human perception knows that perception is a fact to.
Feel free to comment
Everything matters, don't forget to tweak your placebos!
“Audio as a hobby is dying, largely by its own hand. As far as the real world is concerned, high-end audio lost its credibility during the 1980s, when it flatly refused to submit to the kind of basic honesty controls (double-blind testing, for example) that had legitimized every other serious scientific endeavor since Pascal. [This refusal] is a source of endless derisive amusement among rational people and of perpetual embarrassment for me..”
Where there's mystery there's margin.
There has a been a lot of talk about optimizing a PC for audio use by improving power supplies, lowering power usage and streamlining processes. There is a way to do this to a very high level, the low powered linux client.
Many people seek advice and they choose who will give it to them. A person chooses an advisor who will give them the answers and advice that they want to hear.
Jean Paul Sartre
If an ABX test shows a statistically significant difference then you can reasonably conclude that there is a difference. Unfortunately, a likely outcome will be that the test will not show a statistically significant difference. In that event it would be improper to conclude that there is no difference. You will be back where you started.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Tony Lauck
Updates
2009
April
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Bit imperfect for a better sound
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Need a media player with a better interface than Windows Media Player? Try J River
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An important aspect is your listening position.
Shifting it 4 inches makes a difference. Not a ‘audiophile’ difference but a measurable difference. - A bit more on speakers
- The file structure of your music collection
March
- How low can you go, sub woofer down to 1 Hz
- Got the audio forum blues?
- Tape of real audiophile quality
- Controlling the volume by turning it down
February
- Displaying lyrics in WMP
- Want to test your sound card? Rightmark does the job
- WMP library to Excel, a simple script
- SRC, Sample Rate Conversion, some complex mathematics and a comparison
- WASAPI, a bit perfect Vista interface
- Toslink or coax?
- Rsync to backup music files
- Producing a 1930 record player sound
January
- Remote Desktop is a alternative for a Remote control
- Things you can't do with WMP
- Vinyl rippers, found an excellent source
- Want to know everything about an ASF audio file? Try ASF