The Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) philosophy is built on solid logic: if you start with a flawed input—or worse, fail to capture everything on the source—you’re not just passing imperfections downstream; you’re locking yourself out of ever hearing what was lost.
It’s like photography—if the original image is blurry, no amount of editing or high-end printing will make it sharp. The same applies to audio: if the source is compromised, there’s no fixing it later.
Audiophiles in the GIGO camp argue that high-resolution sources, top-tier DACs, and well-mastered recordings are the foundation of great sound. Their reasoning is simple:
- You can’t improve what isn’t there. If details are lost at the source, no speaker in the world will bring them back.
- Garbage in means garbage out. A high-end system won’t "fix" a poor signal; it just makes the flaws more obvious.
- Everything downstream depends on the quality of the input. Start with the best source possible, and the rest of the system will simply reveal what’s already there.
And they have a point. No one expects a high-end system to turn a 128kbps MP3 into an audiophile experience. A well-mastered recording played through a high-quality DAC is undeniably better than a compressed, low-resolution file.
But here’s the catch: even the best source in the world won’t sound good if the speakers can’t accurately reproduce what’s coming in. Which brings us to…
…tomorrow.
