[sjwright]

> ... given the theory behind it, it should be perfectly reproducable. But then, I ask you, why the difference in sound?

Placebo effect. 100% guaranteed. It is literally impossible for digital audio signals to degrade in any way that even vaguely aligns with your descriptions. It is analogous to using a different brand of SD card to get richer, more vibrant colours out of your digital camera. It is analogous to changing the ethernet cable on your computer to make web pages more insightful.

Bits don't work that way.

Whereas the placebo effect is very real and very powerful.

Firewire is also a two-way packetized, error corrected protocol. If a cable was not delivering the signal reliably, the consequence would have been a lower maximum transmission rate, not error that could affect sound. If there was any change in the signal due to the cable, your Onyx interface could not maintain a stable connection with your computer and you'd get no sound at all.

Your attempt to describe how digital signals are transmitted is actually just plain wrong.

Furthermore, race conditions have absolutely no relevance to this discussion.

[zmix]

I wrote:

> [Digital] Signals [when not transmitted optically] get transmitted as electricity with ever changing voltages [...]

You wrote:

> Your attempt to describe how digital signals are transmitted is actually just plain wrong.

Wikipedia writes:

> A waveform [...] as a digital signal [...]. The two states are usually represented by some measurement of an electrical property: Voltage is the most common [...]

Therefore I will leave it here.