Hi Paul. I think the hi-fi cable difference is snake oil to pad the commissions of audio salespeople, but I agree with your basic thought that the differences are subtle.

Remember, there is no uncompressing needed when using the audiophile version. Perhaps you meant to say "regenerating" rather than "uncompressing"? The primary reason BIAB provided us a few years ago with the ability to uncompress the WMA files was to speed up regeneration (even though the quality was unchanged). We tried to measure informally and even then, the speed up was maybe 15% at best, but that made a difference because everything ran much slower then: remember the +/- files? There were three times as many files needed for RealTracks before the Elastique algorithm eliminated that need. Is the difference in regeneration speed NOW worth the expense of upgrading to the audiophile version? Probably not, if that were the only reason to upgrade. But is it a factor to consider along with the audio benefit? Yes. A lot faster? No.

EDIT: Paul, you said above you use BIAB for personal enjoyment. I really wouldn't worry about getting the audiophile version for that purpose.



Last edited by Matt Finley; 12/07/13 09:09 AM.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.