Is Hi-Res a placebo?

[jayne lee wilson]

Do we know whether and to what extent the CD players process the bits they're pulling off the disc? I certainly am aware that different computer programs sound different from one another.

Well the CD Players certainly shouldn't be!
It would be very unusual for CD transports or players-used-as-transports (especially 1990s classics which were dedicated to Redbook & not expected to multi-task as so many are today) to do any processing as such to their digital output, and I'd have expected any reviewer to have pointed it out if it were happening. Not to mention that the T&A Dac would probably object to a less than pure, bit perfect stream arriving at its inputs.....
(My two transports do of course sound different from each other... but you just knew I'd say that didn't you...?)

Absolutely about Computer Programs: I keep Audirvana+ and JRiver on partly because of a useful sonic differences between them (and Audirvana offers yet more choice with its warmer Integer 2 mode - quite useful for your 1930s Toscaninis!).

[Dave2002]

I've downloaded Firefox and I'm all set to go, but haven't dipped my toe yet.

Go on - get wet!

[Richard Barrett]

the T&A Dac would probably object to a less than pure, bit perfect stream arriving at its inputs.....

What does that mean exactly? It can't tell the difference if the bitstream is not exactly what's in the CD, which, if your CD players sound different from one another when feeding the dame D/A converter, must be the case. Remember that smoothness of power delivery to the moving parts of the CD transport is an important factor, as is all the error correction and/or concealment that's performed by the transport before it outputs the supposedly pristine bitstream to the converter. Any differences that exist between all-software playback systems must be at least as significant when dealing with systems that also involve moving hardware.

[jayne lee wilson]

The T&A's display lets the user know if there is an error in the data transfer, or if the clock quality of the connected signal is inadequate.

But in playback I've always put SQ differences between transports down to jitter levels - amounts and distribution, affecting the frequency response in the Dac at the analogue output end. Yes, this could easily be caused by power supplies, hence the often audibly beneficial effects of having external ones as upgrades (not only with digital sources). But none of these effects or error correction(**) could be described as "processing" of course. That should surely always be the DAC's task alone.

(**)I've never been convinced either that high levels of "corrected errors", the idea of the CD player being overworked , are ever audible in themselves as a sound quality change. (If you hear a jump or a click it is uncorrected). Maybe you've a different experience?

[Richard Barrett]

none of these effects or error correction(**) could be described as "processing" of course.

A stream of 0s and 1s being changed into another stream of 0s and 1s is processing!

[jayne lee wilson]

A stream of 0s and 1s being changed into another stream of 0s and 1s is processing!

Well I guess it could be so-described but because you often see "dac-processor" or "av-processor" I'd always thought of the transport as the "producer". A "CD Processor" is a complete disc replay system including filtering & conversion, sometimes in two separate boxes.

Whereas Dacs or "Dac-Processors" are often highly individualised and idiosyncratic in what they do, most CD transports are trying to do the same thing - output the cleanest stream they can. When you asked "to what extent" mine might be "processing the bits", I thought you were looking for something more unusual.