- Joined
- Dec 13, 2005
I hate to say it MattMan, but I'm also going there is _zero_ difference in sound quality of a digital source. The thing about a digital signal is that there is usually a set protocol to go along with it. Source devices have to stick to that protocol. It doesn't matter if it's a $400 laptop or another $4,000 high end audio source, if the manufactures of those devices want them hooked up to something like a receiver using some form of digital audio, they both have to meet that protocol, which means sending the exact same signal, or else the receiver will not know what to do with it. It is not a matter of good audio or bad audio, it is a matter of THE audio or NO audio.
Also, disabling the analogue audio on the laptop will have zero effect. There is no "reduced signal path", because it is all the same signal. It gets sent as a digital signal to the laptops audio controller, which then, if needed converts it to analog and sends it along one set of traces to the analog jacks, whatever those may be (on a laptop, more than likely that's your standard 3.5mm jack). Or, if digital, converts it to whatever protocol is needed (HDMI, TOSLINK, there is no signal loss in a digital to digital conversion so it doesn't matter) and sends it along a different set of traces. Chances are you won't ever have analog and digital signals using the same traces.
Now, if you still claim that your squeeze box is somehow putting out a different digital signal than the laptop, that must mean there must be some sort of EQ or something on the software side that is manipulating the source before it gets sent out. If you're still thinking that one digital source can put out a digital signal "better" than another. you might as well go on and say that the squeeze box is simply reading data from the hard drive "better", which not only is the same line of thinking, but it would mean the laptop is reading that signal wrong. This means you'd get nothing off the drive, because to the laptop, the hard drive would be speaking gibberish.
Also, disabling the analogue audio on the laptop will have zero effect. There is no "reduced signal path", because it is all the same signal. It gets sent as a digital signal to the laptops audio controller, which then, if needed converts it to analog and sends it along one set of traces to the analog jacks, whatever those may be (on a laptop, more than likely that's your standard 3.5mm jack). Or, if digital, converts it to whatever protocol is needed (HDMI, TOSLINK, there is no signal loss in a digital to digital conversion so it doesn't matter) and sends it along a different set of traces. Chances are you won't ever have analog and digital signals using the same traces.
Now, if you still claim that your squeeze box is somehow putting out a different digital signal than the laptop, that must mean there must be some sort of EQ or something on the software side that is manipulating the source before it gets sent out. If you're still thinking that one digital source can put out a digital signal "better" than another. you might as well go on and say that the squeeze box is simply reading data from the hard drive "better", which not only is the same line of thinking, but it would mean the laptop is reading that signal wrong. This means you'd get nothing off the drive, because to the laptop, the hard drive would be speaking gibberish.