Go to dr.loudness-wars.info to see how all the versions, from DSD to iTunes downloads compare. Apparently the cassette or the 5.1 down mix to stereo are the best (statistically speaking). On my Playskool My First audiophile rig the Tidal 16/44 sounds just fine.
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You are not the world. Perhaps you don’t need or want it.
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Hey Mr. Pepper,
I think you are referring to Mark Waldrep’s research in this area…,.,
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That’s it. I took it and scored under 50%.
yes the list is suspect.
What’s in the extra bits? Air. And, honestly, the “air” in 1977 is nothing like the air today. Those were the times man. Those were the times. The only way to get close is by going hi-rez. Otherwise… you’re missing that special magical air. It was thick man and it produced magic in the studio. Close your eyes. Listen to the air.
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It’s about digital filtering causing audible artefacts and degradation and nothing to do with high frequencies.
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I think my DAC sounds best when my walls are painted with Behr Ultra Premium paint as
opposed to Sherwin Williams paint!! Yes Some of the stuff out there is EXTREMELY foolish!
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Well I paid him some money on Kick Starter for his new book…I guess his research saves me money on future high res purchases?
But I sure thought I was hearing something better in higher res files…He says that even albums that originate/recorded in higher than 16/44.1 is still a waste…looking forward to reading his completed book…
Did it surprise you that you scored so low?
Cheers,
Well it is a very good album, in my opinion. Brilliant guitar.
As for the high resolution, I doubt that anyone can tell the difference between that and CD quality, That’s true of most material out there.
To me, much of this is marketing hype. It’s like those movies that are anything from 100yrs to 30yrs old that are being re-released in 4K.
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Music Scope is awesome! I was late to the party though so I cannot purchase a license. How has it been working for you?
I have been using MusicScope since 2015 and the program was and is very helpful for me. After only a few months the investment had paid off for me as I can prove the download stores “wrong” HiRes albums through the charts and usually get a refund or a free alternative download.
In my opinion MusicScope is the easiest to use and most descriptive analysis program for music files so far. It is very unfortunate that Xivero has ceased operations.
Yes it did surprise me. I was confident that I could tell the difference pretty easily.
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Yeah, I am sure it would pay for itself pretty quickly. The whole situation is weird, as they are still around to help recover lost liscence, but not doing business. Since they are out of business now, I asked if they could just give me a license since it won’t hurt anything… lol, they politely said they would love to but are not able to do so. Oh well. Hopefully something comparable comes out soon! I am glad you are getting good use out of yours!
Whenever I want to buy something online, I always hear a nagging voice “get the 24/96 version”… but then I remember, I’ve always been mildly disappointed. I need to kill off that voice. 16/44 is good enough for my ears, mastering is the difference, the rest is just marketing (IMO).
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You are right, the marketing power is incredible when all the studies show the lack of real interest of HiRes and our physiological impossibility to benefit from it. But audiophilia in its somewhat neurotic quest for absolute purity is easily deceived.
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1st world problems, lol.
Does the world need to mull over the necessity for such things.
Wait… does the world need me to mull over the necessity to mull over such things…I’m going to have a nice lie down with my favourite padded vice and a copy of Diana Krall’s latest in 32/768…
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I suspect people that are hearing things in hi-rez files are actually hearing superior mastering. Think about it. If you plan to release your record in hi-rez format, wouldn’t you be sure the album was mastered as well as possible? I know I prefer newer releases in hi-rez format vs vintage releases in hi-rez format. Many newer alt rock albums seem to have been much better mastered than many classic rock albums.
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True story. My neighbour, who has a Qobuz subscription, was 100% convinced that Melody Gardot’s album “Sunset Blue” sounded “so much better” in HiRes (24/96) than in CD quality. He told me that he’d made multiple A/B comparisons between the two versions and that he’d definitely heard a “night-and-day difference”. The problem was the HiRes album was mislabelled on Qobuz and streamed only in 16/44.1. In other words, he was only listening to the CD version the whole time. You should’ve seen his face when I told him about this. 
So much for “golden ears”! 
BTW, Qobuz resolved the issue a few days later.
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Confirmation bias is very powerful and cannot be avoided (same with wine tasting). When listening to playlist without knowing the format, the songs that I thought were Hires because of their quality were in Redbook quality
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