Dan Portsdan
Mar 12, 2023, 2:54 AMThis is your periodic reminder that 10 years ago an audiophile forum started debating which versions of memcpy had the highest sound quality.
And that C++ new sounds better than malloc.
Replies
Brendan CullybrendanMar 12, 2023, 2:59 AM@dan this is breaking my brain worse than when I tried to parse HTML with regular expressions.
Wolfgang Viechtbauerwviechtb@scholar.socialMar 12, 2023, 2:12 PM@brendan @dan I assume you know https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/2615367 but if not, enjoy!
bensqrt2@chaos.socialMar 13, 2023, 8:50 AM
Johan Halsehejsna@ruby.socialMar 12, 2023, 8:07 PM
justJannejustjanne@decentralised.chatJan 12, 2026, 7:57 PM
pun gentieure@retro.socialMar 12, 2023, 3:22 AM@dan oh god, lol, lmao
Did you see the audiophile SSD that made the rounds a couple years ago? They said it sounded best with the OS loaded onto it and music on a different drive entirely.
- Dan PortsdanMar 12, 2023, 3:29 AM
@ieure Don't miss the world of audiophile-grade ethernet switches! https://jcat.eu/product/m12-switch-gold/
The Doctordrwho@hackers.townMar 12, 2023, 4:34 AM- pun gentieure@retro.socialMar 12, 2023, 5:08 AM
- pun gentieure@retro.socialMar 12, 2023, 5:10 AM
Mar 12, 2023, 5:32 PM- Mar 12, 2023, 5:33 PM
- The Doctordrwho@hackers.townMar 12, 2023, 6:49 PM
Mar 12, 2023, 5:59 PM
uli hertlein 🇪🇺🇺🇦uhertlein@mastodon.socialMar 13, 2023, 12:37 PM
Liam Provenlproven@vivaldi.netMar 17, 2023, 11:55 AM@uhertlein @steve @ieure @drwho @dan I mean, you joke, obvs, but you know what, bespoke artisanal OSes and apps sound pretty good to me, TBH.
esasyklemil@snabelen.noMar 12, 2023, 12:23 PM
ArtyIFartyif@mstdn.socialMar 12, 2023, 2:07 PM
Caligeekosupremo@bsd.networkMar 14, 2023, 9:52 AM@dan I’m sure this is real … but accepting this is kinda wrecking my head. 🤯
Mar 12, 2023, 3:54 AM@dan switched from std::memcpy to Monster’s $60 gold-plated one and I can definitely hear a difference
ed(1) conferenceed1conf@bsd.networkMar 12, 2023, 12:32 PM
fsanfsan@tilde.zoneMar 13, 2023, 8:30 PM
Mar 12, 2023, 4:09 PM
Orion Edwardsborland@mastodon.nzMar 12, 2023, 3:58 AM@dan from a reply later in that thread:
“I have found the best sound is an infinite goto loop with it throwing an exception after it reads beyond the end of the buffer, I set exceptions off so it doesn't crash the program. “
I can’t stop laughing 😀😀😀
Peter Kahn🏳️⚧️🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️🌈Citizenkahn@tech.lgbtMar 12, 2023, 4:01 AM
Eric Dannewitzericdano@musician.socialMar 12, 2023, 4:14 AM@dan @donmelton
Almost as good as the mental gymnastics when someone needs a Yamaha CL5 mixing console cause of the pre-amps but they are using wireless microphones…….
FElon&Felon47🇺🇦🇨🇦🇩🇰🇹🇼RustedComputingMar 12, 2023, 4:23 AM@dan TIL audiophilia = mysticism.
It’s reminiscent of homeopathic infinite dilution of some substance or another. But it’s even more baseless.
calcifer :nes_fire:calcifer@hackers.townMar 12, 2023, 7:41 PM@RustedComputing @dan every hobby with a technical aspect has a "woo-woo" subgroup like this. Audiophiles mostly aren't like that, but boy are their woo subgroups noisy in comparison to a lot of other hobbies.
- The Doctordrwho@hackers.townMar 12, 2023, 4:33 AM
@dan More and more, I'm thinking the whole audiophile community is a trolling competition that got way out of hand.
Mar 14, 2023, 7:38 AM
Fritz AdalisFritzAdalis@infosec.exchangeMar 12, 2023, 4:37 AM@dan
This site is addictive, it led me to https://6moons.com/audioreviews/furutech/rd2.htmlIt's a CD demagnatizer. It removes magnetism from aluminum CDs.
Rob RicciricciMar 12, 2023, 5:03 AM@FritzAdalis @dan These people are buying NFTs now
Mar 14, 2023, 5:09 AM@ricci @FritzAdalis @dan Wow. I just had an idea. What about an NFT that contains a code (the name of the song, I guess) that you save to a file and place in the same directory as the music files, which will improve the sound quality of the music.
Imagine the profit. You'll sell an NFT per song. Then you'll have people buying the NFT from eachother because only one person at a time can own the quality-improving NFT.
Like @drwho I've come to the realisation that if I didn't have any morals, I'd be rich.
- Rob RicciricciMar 14, 2023, 5:16 AM
@loke @FritzAdalis @dan @drwho This is the most evilly plausible moneymaking scheme I have ever heard of. This could be huge. Like "exceeding the GDP of small countries" huge.
Perhaps this could be used for good, by having the payments for these things go directly to the artists? - Mar 14, 2023, 5:30 AM
@ricci @FritzAdalis @dan @drwho Yeah. Someone should do it that way, if for no other reason than to stop people from profiting from it.
- Fritz AdalisFritzAdalis@infosec.exchangeMar 14, 2023, 11:03 AM
Mar 15, 2023, 6:10 AMFritz, Techmoan did a video on one of these. It was the most polite "no, this is crap and it can't possibly work because it contradicts laws of physics, you stupid" I've ever seen.
Peter Barnesinfinite8horizon@aus.socialMar 12, 2023, 6:05 AM@dan Oh, there’s no end to them. Oxygen-free copper *USB* cables… Noughtier noughts, oneier ones! Analog numbers! I guess we should be glad their gullibiity doesn’t translate into anything more dangerous than listening to the sound of empty wallets.
http://the-ear-net.blogspot.com/2012/11/cad-cable-controversy.html
Florian Haasxahteiwi@mastodon.socialMar 12, 2023, 7:17 AM@dan Yet another example of how extremism is indistinguishable from its parody.
Thanks to @jcfischer for the pointer; this gave me a good chuckle to start my Sunday morning. 🙂
Mar 12, 2023, 7:20 AM@xahteiwi @dan I had these kinds of discussions around 25 years ago when I worked in an IT company, where the boss also was into HiEnd and helped design and produce speakers. The gear he had in his office was astounding.
But I also learnt to appreciate just how good good sounding gear sounds. Forever changed the price tag of Audio equipment I bought. (Around 2k is the sweet spot to get great audio). Luckily he wasn’t in that camp, but some of employees and colleagues…
Tane Piper ⁂tanepiper@tane.codesMar 14, 2023, 7:25 AM@jcfischer @xahteiwi @dan That's the thing, there is a perceptible difference *at some level* mostly because €2000 is going to get you better drivers, higher quality materials and build. Much like the difference between a commercial violin and a hand-crafted one.
But the gains beyond that diminish quickly.
- Mar 15, 2023, 6:46 AM
@tanepiper @xahteiwi @dan exactly this. I mean, it was fun to listen to a Krell amplifier that cost 50k but as you said, the differences become miniscule
- Florian Haasxahteiwi@mastodon.socialMar 15, 2023, 4:20 PM
Gentlemen, I'm gonna confess that I do quite like me some Hendrix played through the aux input of my cranked Marshall. 😀
- Mar 16, 2023, 10:05 PM
nice rig :)
- Mar 12, 2023, 7:23 AM
@xahteiwi @dan also at that time the best sounding CD players were cheap CD-ROMs from PCs. Simple reason: They transferred data in 8bits, and fed them to a DAC with an external clock, while audio CDs fed data serial to DAC and clock was derived from bit stream. That led to jitter, while the el-cheapo CD-ROMs had stable clock :)
Mar 12, 2023, 7:51 AM@dan You'd be amazed what compiler optimizations will do to the developer's original intent!
Mar 12, 2023, 8:37 AM@dan My brain hurts
Mar 12, 2023, 9:07 AM@dan please tell me that the whole thread is just an elaborate joke.
Mar 12, 2023, 9:08 AM@dan In the scale of stultifyingly pretentious bullshittery, audiophiles are just above cryptobros and just below wine bores.
Mar 12, 2023, 9:33 AM@dan Don't forget, the HDD brand you use to store your music can also affect the SQ. 🤦♂️
https://www.enjoythemusic.com/hificritic/vol5_no3/listening_to_storage.htm
Andrew Feeneyandrewfeeney@phpc.socialMar 18, 2023, 4:51 AM@damselfly @dan The zeroes are deeper, fuller, warmer and the ones oh so crisp, how they they sparkle and shimmer!
Brian Staffordbriancs@mastodon.ieMar 12, 2023, 10:39 AM@dan I honestly can't work out whether this was an elaborate troll.
It reminds me of debate about jitter on cd drives affecting sound quality (ignoring that resynchronising to an accurate clock is easy to do in hardware). Or eliminating negative feedback from audio amplifiers. Oh, and shaving the sides of cds. And many many more...
George Steelgtsteel@kolektiva.socialMar 17, 2023, 11:19 PM@briancs @dan Anything to avoid replacing a broken wall wart or clock-recovery circut. Shaving the sides of CDs does make a diffeience when the player's power supply is dying (as the extra current drawn by the tracking system to compensate for wobble can brown out the logic), but replacing the power supply with a new one seems much easier than this "workaround".
Mar 12, 2023, 10:45 AM@dan real audiophiles only listen to music decoded on vacuum tube computers
Gil Hovagilhova@mastodon.worldMar 12, 2023, 12:20 PM@dan I worked in film sound (post-production) in the late 90s, just as everyone had switched to computers. I had two sound editors tell me to never put a WAV file in a zip, because it would ruin the audio quality.
- ed(1) conferenceed1conf@bsd.networkMar 12, 2023, 12:39 PM
@gilhova @dan I'll see your zip-file argument (which I've also had re. audio & graphics) and raise you the professor that didn't want students storing files on Iomega Zip drives for the "same" (i.e. name-collision with "zip" and zip is bad) reason. :flan_facepalm:
talk of lossy-vs-non-lossy never sank in.
- Gil Hovagilhova@mastodon.worldMar 12, 2023, 1:10 PM
@ed1conf That's a good one!
I had a computer repair instructor who insisted that you shouldn't put a magnet too close to a CD-ROM, or you'd erase it. Like, mind, this person *taught computer repair.*
argv[-1]argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.orgJun 26, 2026, 3:45 PM@gilhova @dan @lunareclipse @FritzAdalis
I see they've graduated from “analog audio crudely encoded in mechanical wobbles is better actually” and have moved on to [checks notes] debating differences in audio quality in situations where there being any difference at all is mathematically impossible.
Fascinating.
Tristan Colgate-McFarlanetmcfarlane@toot.communityMar 12, 2023, 1:03 PM@dan hilarious, but it also reminded me of a glibc memcpy (I think) bug that broke Linux audio for ages (iirc, it had something to do with the direction of copying)
https://lwn.net/Articles/414467/
