Does SQ ever improve by ripping a CD?
I see this fairly often on other forums. Has anyone tested it?
If there is a difference, what is the mechanism?
(I've seen people say the clock signal is derived from a different source, but don't know enough about digital electronics in audio to know how much smoke is involved in that claim).
Other mechanisms could be a different DAC (seems most likely), acoustic effects on the CD mechanism, and noise injection.