• Still going further down the rabbit hole of 192/24 lossless masters... started with the "you can't hear the difference, what's the point"... moved onto the "you can't tell the difference with most music" and I am still there.

    For most pop/rock, there's just no point as there's no difference in how it sounds. Mostly any gains are just because they were remastered and the mixes changed, and it's nothing to do with the resolution of the file format and all to do with revisiting a studio.

    But... but whenever you stray into music with a lot going on, rich full bass, strings, brass, delicate percussion like triangles and chimes... and all of that is happening at once... then it's really clear.

    Latest epiphany came from listening to a 192/24 version of What's Going On, and I have owned this on vinyl, CD, ripped the CD, a remastered web download... and I still have all of these except for the vinyl (well, I have it but no deck)... so I could A/B compare this on the same amp + speaker... and yup, there are parts to this I'd never heard before, and it's less... stressed, easier to listen to, less cluttered(?).

    I'm thinking that high resolution sound files do make sense, but really only for orchestration, jazz, and things that overlap with that... then you need the ability to have all this extra info in the file format. Still can't hear a damn bit of difference with 99% of what I own, but every now and then something is noticeably better, and this one is.

  • The detroit mix of WGO is worth a listen too. Really different mix originally shelved by the label.

    If you look at the white paper by Dan Lavry that's been around forever it makes a very good case for 96/24 as a reasonable limit with enough frequency headroom. As human hearing is limited to somewhere around 16-20khz (you can find your own limit with a frequency sweep) 96/24 gives you a maximum of 48khz, well above the human limit.

    Mostly what you are noticing is the extra care in the mastering as 192/24 is considered an 'audiophile' kind of resolution.

    Maybe get a SACD player and some SACD's, I've been pretty happy going that route.

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