Do we really need anything greater than 24/96? Opinions?

atdavid

Has anyone ever noticed that it is mainly old people that complain about CDs and digital. Young people don't experience listening fatigue with it.

I've never noticed that and can only wonder what led you to that conclusion. Most people don't care much about sound quality and younger people - based on attendance at audio shows and presence in dealer showrooms - seem as a group to be especially disinterested. But those young people who do care about sound quality seem to be the ones driving the vinyl resurgence, further casting doubt on your claim.

Maybe old brains just get information overload listening to digital?

Information overload? From listening to a CD? Not likely.

... and if listening to a CD could induce "information overload," just imagine what might happen at a live concert!

atdavid, it would appear, has bottomed out. 

They are listening to vinyl on cheap systems. It is purely a nostalgia thing. They actually do care about sound, but they are driven by convenience. They are every bit as interested in music as older people are, they just have different tastes than the generation before them .... just like almost every other generation.  My kids listen to digital music for hours on end. They never complain about listening fatigue. That would never occur to them, no more than someone driving for hours complains about listening fatigue from their car stereo.


They not only don't "dislike" dynamically compressed music, they seem to prefer it. Look at what sells. Look at the music that is played in clubs which seems to lack any variance in volume.

Live concert would not inherently be dynamically compressed. That would all depend on the artist. It will be loud though. I must say as I get older, less and less of my age-peers are interested in going to concerts.

@atdavid, "Has anyone ever noticed that it is mainly old people that complain about CDs and digital. Young people don't experience listening fatigue with it. Maybe old brains just get information overload listening to digital?"

This made me think of how little impact we audiophiles have on the actual delivery of music. Almost zero.

It's always been a business always driven by the chase for profits - and very little little else.

My dad listened to music via radio, valve amp driven vinyl and home recordings he made on his portable reel to reel deck.

I listened to music via transistors powering vinyl, cassette, minidisc, CD, radio, MP3 and streaming.

My children have only known music delivered in a digital format, usually via CD, MP3, YouTube and streaming.

The industry is only ever interested in delivering formats to the large consumer dog, and not its tiny audiophile tail. 

So it's understandable that each generation may have little experience of the way the previous one listened to music.

The general consumer driven assumption that products keep getting better is, as many audiophiles know, not always true.
There are even some who believe that for the pure reproduction of the spoken voice, things have hardly progressed since the days of the wax cylinder!

Let's also remember that the anachronistic current vinyl resurgence was primarily influenced by club culture experience, not by any wish for better sound quality. The record industry was not slow in cashing in. 

So far it remains the only format that came back to any significant extent. 

Redbook CD is more or less dead, so naturally enough the industry looks for other means to generate income. If 24/96 is deemed profitable then that's where it will go. 

Whether audiophiles actually need it is more or less irrelevant.