To my way of thinking, using the phrase "bits are bits" to characterise a point of view about this is misleading. Surely no one is arguing that the bits are somehow changed depending on subtle things like single or even multiple re-clocking, are they? If they were, that would be admitting that the engineering principles we rely on to run the world are somehow faulty and need extra help (especially for digitised audio) which seems to be nonsensical. By virtue of the same engineering this would be easy to detect anyway - think CRCs used by Ethernet and USB, for example.
The more interesting part of the discussion to me, at least, is about how the reliably-delivered stream of bits gets converted to analog, and whether there is any way for that process to be upset by the "upstream" digital equipment, isn't it? I think one can hold the view that the digital stuff "just works" - so the bits you put in are the bits you get out, no argument - but still agree that there are plenty of other factors that can cause noise, distortion, etc. in the conversion process, any of which could depend on what is connected upstream.
Another way of putting this is that although it's straightforward these days to deliver a stream of bits reliably from A to B at audio data rates, it's still non-trivial to design a low-distortion, high-resolution digital-to-analog converter. It seems that the focus of attention for many is to keep the bad stuff out of the DAC. That's got to be a good idea in principle, but how much effort one wants to put into it in practice is obviously a very personal decision: for some people that's the hobby in itself, for others it's a means to an end (listening to music), and for others it's just "utter nonsense" (to borrow your phrase). Each to his own, as always!
The more interesting part of the discussion to me, at least, is about how the reliably-delivered stream of bits gets converted to analog, and whether there is any way for that process to be upset by the "upstream" digital equipment, isn't it? I think one can hold the view that the digital stuff "just works" - so the bits you put in are the bits you get out, no argument - but still agree that there are plenty of other factors that can cause noise, distortion, etc. in the conversion process, any of which could depend on what is connected upstream.
Another way of putting this is that although it's straightforward these days to deliver a stream of bits reliably from A to B at audio data rates, it's still non-trivial to design a low-distortion, high-resolution digital-to-analog converter. It seems that the focus of attention for many is to keep the bad stuff out of the DAC. That's got to be a good idea in principle, but how much effort one wants to put into it in practice is obviously a very personal decision: for some people that's the hobby in itself, for others it's a means to an end (listening to music), and for others it's just "utter nonsense" (to borrow your phrase). Each to his own, as always!
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
