First of all, thank you for the development of Plexamp. I think this is the first time I’ve had an experience that truly feels like listening to a record.
But I don’t understand this “Bit Perfect” thing. As far as I understand, the data is passed in RAW format through a digital output, whether HDMI, SPDIF, etc., and the AV receiver takes care of decoding that data. Is that correct?
If so, could I use a cheap USB-to-SPDIF adapter, enable Bit Perfect, and let the receiver handle the rest? Is that correct?
I hope someone can clear up my doubts.
This term was coined during the time when the only sample rates we had were 44.1 kHz on CD and 48 kHz on DVD/DAT tape.
Specifically, it was referring to how an audio engineer in the studio should listen to the material they are mastering. (mastering being the last step of audio production, before release on the above mentioned mediums)
Since sample rate conversion between 44.1 and 48 kHz back then was fraught with losses and inaccuracies, it was pledged to be avoided. Also, processing of audio was usually done with just 16 bit accuracy in integer numbers.
But an engineer should listen to the material without any quality-degrading operations applied to it before it reaches the speakers. So they can actually listen to the audio material and not to whatever is potentially altering the sound before it reaches their ears.
So in general the idea is that nothing should change the audio data between the file on disc, until it reaches the DAC. Be it sample rate conversion, EQ, compression, etc.
For hardliners not even volume changes in the digital domain should be applied because they of course change the data. (digital volume change is mathematically a multiplication) (Although the latter should not be that much of an issue anymore, since we are past the era of audio processing in 16 bit integer algorithms.)
In Plexamp, bit-perfection is mainly related to matching the sample rate of the DAC with the sample rate of the source file.
If the sample rate of the DAC has to be changed between two songs, another nice feature of Plexamp cannot work: Sweet Fades
So it is left to the listener, to decide how important they deem bit perfection over Sweet Fades and a setting is provided to pick when (and how frequently) the sample rate switching shall be performed.
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