Thanks Wiki-Hans, a great idea to to make this greatly informative video by itself also a hub to deep dives in your past videos. Definitely a “one stop shop” for anyone who wants to be informed.

I once told a sommelier that I know nothing about wines . . . he said not to worry - the only thing that matters is whether you LIKE the wine. End of discussion :-)

I always look forward to seeing you on my weekends Thank you for your dedication

Great stuff as usual. To sum things up, if you like what you have - enjoy it, and keep it. In Australia we say “if it ain’t broken don’t fix it”. Thx Hans.

Thanks for sharing this extensive analysis. It's rare to find KZfaq videos providing this level of information, especially your insights on how the auditory system processes information. As a neuroscience expert, if you allow, I'd like to add some insights to your discussion. Note, I'm not an engineer so I stick to my area of expertise ;-) but I trust technical aspects like sampling rates and DACs are crucial. The role of the brain in auditory processing is equally important. If you're interested, have a look at the study performed by Elisabeth Hendrich et al. on "Temporal-order judgment of visual and auditory stimuli." It reveals our brain's complex capability in processing auditory information, particularly regarding timing and sequence. This complexity indicates that sound quality perception isn't solely based on audio's physical properties but also on how our brain processes and interprets these signals, sometimes leading to subjective biases. Moreover, as we age, our susceptibility to cognitive biases in auditory perception can increase, adding another layer to how we experience sound quality. This blend of objective audio technology and subjective neurological processing is essential for a comprehensive grasp of sound quality nuances. Thank you for bringing this topic to light, this is not an easy topic to share with lots of misunderstanding!

Thank you so much for answering my question. Your knowledge and expertise are greatly appreciated. I am now a subscriber and will continue to view all of your future videos. Please keep up your excellent work. Thanks again!

This video should be a mandatory study for all "audiophiles" before starting an audio YT channel. No hyperbole. In fact I would pin it on everyone who is into audio, ripping, portable and home use at the top of the channel. This is just excellent clear, unbiased and much studied information. Any more and we are getting 'lost', any less and we are left guessing. Brilliant. I am unrelated to the author :)

Thank you so much for these insights Hans! This video answers so many small questions that have bounced around the back of my mind for some time now. And I really appreciate the wine analogy at the end, I'll make sure to share it the next time a subjective sceptic refutes even the concept of audible but non-measurable differences in audio quality. Have a lovely weekend!

Thank you sir for another excellent analysis of such a complex set of topics. It is easy, as a consumer, to get caught up in a kind of comparison by numbers. Even when there doesn't seem to be a set of numbers that can explain what we hear. I prefer CD because it encourages me to sit down and listen to whole works of music. And even Rock and Jazz albums are complete works.

Thank you so very much for your straightforward teaching 😎👍

Thank you once again for a concise, probative and easily understandable "class" on such a nuanced subject! So glad to see you not too much worse for wear. As the years go by I feel my "ET" getting the better of me at times but, I'm still vertical, can think critically, and wake up with a somewhat positive attitude about life regardless of all the complete "insanity" going on in the world! Our "hobby" has done yeoman work and saved me much expense in psychotherapy thus making a potential MU2 purchase very inexpensive therapy! Kudos again old friend! So glad, truly, to still see you "killin' it! Regards from Brooklyn, NYC

Thanks for another entertaining video with much information and knowledge. I really struggled at the beginning of storing my CDs the first time on harddisk (using an early version of EAC over 20 years in the past) and with streaming, trying several available formats, fighting with organization and tagging of the files. Today its much easier, like always, when you had tried hard to get things running and are aware of the hurdles to take. But, as always, you got same new thoughts for me and i really enjoy them.

Thank you for this one. Very informative.

Thank you sir, simply thanks!

Brilliant You explained it perfectly

I think you meant Grammy award in your earlier statement. Great information in this video for many of us!

The analogue output, section of a DAC has a big effect on the sound.

Dear Hans, Maybe my question could lead to a new topic. After having been under a hi-fi rock for about 10 years, I have been completely captured by the hi-fi virus again for the past two years. I learned so much from your channel, especially in the field of streaming, a new world opened up for me. I currently only play music by streaming and I am now looking into how I can improve my installation. I have two questions about that: 1. What has more impact on the sound quality, the streamer or the DAC. personally I would think the DAC because that task seems more difficult to me. I now know that streaming is more than just passing on ones and zeros, but in the end it comes down to that. I understand that the clock is very important, but a good DAC has that. And that you can upsample and filter and all kinds of things, but a DAC can often do that too. And that you have to keep noise and interference low, but if you have a good Ethernet switch and filter then you have come a long way. I am curious about your vision and, especially, practical experience. 2. Is it better to have integrated equipment, or everything separately (up to and including the power supply) Nowadays you have a lot of equipment in which a DAC is integrated, for example a streamer or an amplifier or even an all-in-1 device, I recently listened to the AVM-CS8.3, and I was very impressed. I have everything separately (streamer, DAC and amplifier, and a separate power supply for all three). I can imagine that if you have everything in one, the components are better coordinated. The disadvantage may be that there is more interference between the components, you would rather not have a sensitive streamer close to a powerful amplifier signal. I'm curious about your vision. Sincerely Arno Floore

Well, that required some paying attention, but it was also understandable for a nitwit like me. Besides the fact that high-resolution files sound better, I especially notice that the man behind the technology ensures that the music sounds good or extremely good. Labels such as ECM and DG often sound better to me at 44khz/16 than higher resolutions from other labels. I will not repeat the gradation that a friend of mine gives to this here, but it is something like what goes in comes out.....😉

Trees *and* forest. Thank you Hans.

Really appreciate this video! Thank you! Would you consider making an overview of the HQPlayer? Would love to hear your opinion on using it and how it interacts with ROON. Thanks again!

As usual, most informative and interesting. I would point out that, at this point in time, the use of MP3 files seems ridiculous. You can buy a 4 Tb solid state hard drive for less than $400 around here. Memory is no longer a rare commodity. For my spouse's car I purchased a half a Tb thumb drive and loaded 18,000 FLAC files on it. You are correct that a car is not an ideal listening environment, but we get pretty good sound for months and months with no repeats. And finally, thanks for all the great videos. You are appreciated.

So, here's a toast to long lasting audio (and brain) equipment! Thank you, Hans!

Thanks!

What could I say. I LOVE listening MUSIC! SOUND! But insted of more reviews on equipment that all Audio reviewers do only, generaly speaking. Audio sophisticated knowledge it was presented in a more simple way to the public. This is fenomenal. It open our minds into full potential in the fantastic world of Audio and beyond....! A GURU! Then...👍🎯💯 💥💥💥💥💥 (5/5) No doubts. Sory if some of words are inconvenient.

Dear Hans, have you watched Golden Sound’s review of MQA that concludes that this format isn’t lossless and doesn’t consider any studio equipment to improve the quality of the recording (which in my opinion was obvious from general logic)?

Danke!

Thanks

Hello Hans. I'm glad you spoke about bit depth of recordings. I have a question about album versions available from the high-resolution streaming services, I'll give an example. The Smile have just released Wall of Eyes and from Qobuz there are two versions available, both 44.1kHz but differing bit depths of 16 and 24bit. From The Smile's website a digital download is available only in 44.1/24. Why the two versions with bit depth differences only, especially the 16bit?

I don't know if I'm on topic, the question is: Could a 1:1 isolation transformer be used upstream of each hi-fi component?

Do you mean what sounds better?

Thanks!