Is audio quality affected by the delivery medium?

Do different hard drives produce differing sound quality?

Do split stereo audio files sound different to interleaved stereo files?

Are loss-less CODECs truly loss-less?

Is it possible for bit-identical audio files to sound different from each?

These are several questions being asked about digital audio, and several of us have found ourselves disagreeing about the answers.

To stir up the conversation a little more….read this article:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/hificritic/vol5_no3/listening_to_storage.htm

Some quotes from the article:

“…the sound of ‘bit-identical’ computer audio may well be just as inexplicably inconsistent as analogue.”

“Anecdotal murmurings and some limited first-hand experience suggested that digital music files can sound different when played from different computer media sources.”

“We readily confirmed that the final sound quality is influenced not only by the choice of network player, DAC, digital cables, or indeed many other long-recognized factors, but additionally — and quite markedly — by the manner in which we now store large quantities of our music at home.”